Re: Semantic Content of Grammatical Gender?

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.

Reply