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)