Re: Gender in language

In message <1159415188.210497.285940@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Peter T. Daniels <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes

Picasso wrote:
What is the purpose of gender in language? It only makes it harder to
learn, particularly for English speakers that don't have to deal with
this nuisance. Who gives a damn if a house in French or Spanish is
feminine or a poem is masculine???

For one thing, so that you can tell which adjective goes with which
noun.

.... but only when the nouns are of different genders in the first place, which is not something you can rely on in languages with only two or three to choose from. You need languages with lots and lots of genders for that to become a compelling reason.

Not every language requires words to appear in as rigid a sequence as
English does.


--
Richard Herring
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Gender in language
    ... particularly for English speakers that don't have to deal with ... Who gives a damn if a house in French or Spanish is ... You need languages with lots and lots of genders ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Gender in language
    ... particularly for English speakers that don't have to deal with ... You need languages with lots and lots of genders ... Not every language requires words to appear in as rigid a sequence as ... according to the classes of noun that we call "genders". ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Gender in language
    ... particularly for English speakers that don't have to deal with ... You need languages with lots and lots of genders ... nouns will give you a quite good resolution. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Designing a language database - issues?
    ... As a hobby project, I want to write a dictionary (basically of ... Hungarian for English speakers - but I don't suppose that the ... languages themselves matter fundamentally. ...
    (comp.databases.theory)
  • Re: Gender in language
    ... particularly for English speakers that don't have to deal with ... weaker sex which is why many languages have feminine affixes (actor + ... gender completely detached from natural gender? ... It might be in languages with many more than 2 genders but I don't know ...
    (sci.lang)