Re: Gender in language

Harlan Messinger <hmessinger.removethis@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4o5f0uFd25moU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
benlizross wrote:
that, a long time ago, somebody started tagging these associated words
to indicate what kind of noun they were modifying. This may often be
redundant, but redundancy is a normal feature of language. (Why do we
have to change "this" to "these" in "this dog/these dogs"?)

Hey, I never thought about that before. Whereas "the" is invariant (as
is "yon"). It occurs to me that not only could we dispense with
this/these and that/those, but we could likewise eliminate "a" and
extend the use of "some" to the singular, without fear of ambiguity.

But "the" is not used the same way as "this" and "these".
"the" and "an" don't have independent meaning and can
never be used without a noun. On the other hand, you
may say: "I've never seen these" or "These are nice."
It's easier/quicker to say "these" than "this lot", "this bunch", etc.
or similar.



The definiteness/indefiniteness in article-less languages is
usually formally expressed only when specifically needed.
So you wouldn't normally say:

Do you have some car?

You'd be more likely to say something like:
"Do you have car?"
Only if you needed to stress the indefinitness you would say:
"Do you have any/some/... car?"

Some cat came in the window.

Again, because in a great majority of cases the definitness or
indefiniteness is of little consequence (contrary to what English
speakers may often believe) you would say:
"Cat came in the window"

Only if you need to stress the indefinitness you would say:
"Some/unknown/strange/... cat came in the window"
To stress definitness you might say:
"That(far away)/this(near)/this(somewhere around)... cat came in the window"

You would often have a choice of at least 10-20 different ways
of expressing definiteness and indefiniteness giving you extra
expressive power (comparing to just simple "the" and "an")
should you need to use it.

I had some bad day today. I came down with some cold.

In article-less languages, I am familiar with, you'd say:
"I had bad day today."
"I came down with cold."

Or with stress:
"I had such bad day today."
"I came down with such cold."

pjk


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