>From: Tom Chappell <tomhchappell@...>
>Reply-To: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
>To: CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu
>Subject: THEORY: Language for a Multi-Species Society: Sex-Based Genders
>Among Neuters, Hermaphrodites, and Sex-Changers.
>Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 14:00:23 -0700
>
>Hello, everyone.
hi.
>I hope my "Subject:" line doesn't draw too much spurious interest.
?
>In a galactic society there might be a great many intelligent races which
>are not organized biologically as the human race is.
>At the very least, some of them might be organized as other terrestrial
>species are.
>To discuss a "sex-based" gender we would first have to decide what a "sex"
>is.
didn't either Pinker or (dang, who wrote 'clockwork orange'?) say that
"gender" was a reference to the Latin "genus" for what kind and group
something belongs to.
>(Remember we could be dealing across species here.
>Some species change sex as they mature ---
>and some species change sex in response to trauma or to poor conditions.)
and some, like the deep-sea spoon worm, has detachable sex (which goes
swimming away, leaving the rest of the body in the sand).
>1-N 2-N 3-N 4-N 5-N 6-N Lifetime neuter.
if the spoon worm has its brains in the body, I suppose that might
apply...if one is willing to ignore the swimming thing in the water.
>And that's if we're talking about one sentient. What if we're talking
>about a group? If they're mixed in gender, what gender do we use?
>For that matter, what if we are not sure of the gender, or do not wish to
>specify it?
>We should be able to say what we mean and no more.
that would be nice, but I think some (most? all?) [known] languages add
more to the "what we say" than we may realize or want.
just a hunch.
>Living inanimate sapient things, like ?? hard to think of an example (maybe
>an intelligent animal whose adult phase was sessile?);
a barnacle? a limpet? (there are multiple shadings to "sessile").
>All comments welcome.
I hope this helps, somehow.