Re: Pronouns & sexualit

On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 10:09 AM, Sai Emrys <saizai@...> wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 9:59 AM, Chris Wright <dhasenan@...> wrote:
>> Another issue is how this semantic content gets into pronouns.
>
> Have you taken a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pronouns ?
>
> They have quite a variety! Some of them have clear etymologies (if you
> know Japanese). E.g. "omae" is literally something like "(honorific)
> ([thing/person] in front of me)".
>
> Bonus irony points: omae is a very rude / intimate pronoun to use, yet
> one of the very few that has an honorific in it. :-P
I think "otaku" does too. That one's a strange case of a noun turning
into a pronoun and then back into a noun with a totally different
meaning.