Re: Epicene words

caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...> wrote:
> --- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Ray Brown <ray.brown@F...> wrote:
>
>> You thought quite correctly. It is what is often called _epicene_ -
>> where sex is important it follows the natural sex/gender of the
>> canine in question. If you couldn't care less whether the critter's
>> a dog or a bitch, then the default gender is masculine.
>
> A number of names for animals are epicene in English.  To specify sex
> pairs such as cow/bull, buck/doe, stallion/mare are used.  The
> word "dog" is different in that there is a special word for the
> female of the species (bitch), but not for the male who is called
> simply "dog."  I'm wondering if there is a name for this particular
> phenomenon.  If not, I suggest the term "semi-epicene"!
There are some sources that make a technical distinction between "common"
gender and "epicene" gender, "epicene" meaning "this word has a gender of
its own regardless of the gender of its referent" (such as, e.g., |vulpes|
"fox/vixen" and |formica| "ant/antess", both fem.) and "common" meaning
"this word takes on the gender of its referent," e.g. natural gender is
used (|homo| "person", |canis| "dog".)

Under such a scheme, most animal names in English are actually of common
gender, if they're not already gender-specific (such as "mare" or "bull"),
because English uses natural gender pretty much exclusively.  I'm not
actually sure whether the existence of the word "bitch" would affect the
epicenony or community of "dog".

> Perhaps others in the list would share with us some of their animal
> names, how they derived them and how they distinguish when the name
> is epicene.
Hmm, will have to check on this.  Must go for now.


	*Muke!
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