Re: Semantic Content of Grammatical Gender?

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)

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