Re: Gender in language

In article <Xns984D917635D2Djohnpf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
John Flynn <johnpf@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Nathan Sanders wrote:

[snip]

Just because some linguistic feature (or more appropriately, the
*potential* for that feature) is "hard-wired" doesn't mean every
language must have that feature.

Which makes me wonder why it is believed to be "hard-wired" and not,
instead, a learned feature.

Are blue eyes learned? Not every human has them...

See the decades-old debate between behaviorists and nativists for more
extensive arguments and evidence from both sides.

Nathan

--
Nathan Sanders
Linguistics Program
Williams College
http://wso.williams.edu/~nsanders/

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

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