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Re: a question about names

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Thursday, September 30, 2004, 2:58
Mark J. Reed scripsit:

> Among natlangs, I'm given to > understand that the Mandarin 3rd-person singular pronoun used to be > genderless, but modern Mandarin (under Western influence, I presume) has > introduced a specifically-female version while continuing to use the > genderless to refer to males - which seems a step backwards > sexual-equity-wise, IMHO.
Only in writing: the 3rd person pronoun is still ta1 for animates and (normally) zero for inanimates; applying ta1 to inanimates is a product of translationese. -- A mosquito cried out in his pain, John Cowan "A chemist has poisoned my brain!" http://www.ccil.org/~cowan The cause of his sorrow http://www.reutershealth.com Was para-dichloro- jcowan@reutershealth.com Diphenyltrichloroethane. (aka DDT)

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Stephen Mulraney <ataltanie@...>Mandarin pronouns (ta1) [Was: a question about names]