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Re: Semantic Content of Grammatical Gender?

From:Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>
Date:Sunday, February 1, 2009, 10:58
Ina van der Vegt wrote:
> 2009/1/31 Chris Peters <beta_leonis@...>: >>> One little nit: If I understand you corrrectly this is not always so. > There is >>> a difference between 'el papa' and 'la papa.' That's the only > one that >>> comes to mind, but there may be others.> > Charlie >> >> One other example I've heard about this (which may be an urban legend, so please >> correct me if my understanding is in error): "El Presidente" in Spanish means >> "The President, while the feminine equivalent, "La Presidente", means >> literally "The First Lady." And this fact (??) led to some interesting >> linguistic dilemmas when various South American countries started electing >> their first women heads of state ... > > There's alse Dutch secretaris/secretaresse, which was originally the > same word with different genders, but grew into different functions > (And, thus, different words) over time. > > While 'Hij is een secretaresse' (He is a 'secretaresse') is not a > usual sentence. 'Zij is een secretaris' (She is a secretary) is one > I've heard before. >
It's the same with Swedish _sjuksköterska/sjukskötare_ which used te be 'female/male nurse' but now mean 'graduate nurse' vs. a much lower grade of nursing assistant, and both can be prefixed with _manlig/kvinnlig_ 'male/female' at need. My Sprachgefühl is conservative in that _manlig sjuksköterska_ sounds totally wrong to me. I'm probably not the only one, since there is a prejudice in some circles that all male nurses are gay. BTW does _male nurse_ sound right to you English native speakers? To me it's up there with _Ms. Chairman_, but it may be that my feelings for the Swedish term. /BP 8^)> -- Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "C'est en vain que nos Josués littéraires crient à la langue de s'arrêter; les langues ni le soleil ne s'arrêtent plus. Le jour où elles se *fixent*, c'est qu'elles meurent." (Victor Hugo)

Replies

caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...>
Brett Williams <mungojelly@...>