Re: Gender in language

In message <nsanders-DA65E2.08541929092006@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Nathan Sanders <nsanders@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
In article <CQ$uDSFlFOHFFwW+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Richard Herring <junk@[127.0.0.1]> wrote:

In message <1159501533.800645.21300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
willcesium@xxxxxxxxx writes
>First off, having grammatical genders isn't something people chose to
>do. No one made a conscious decision to divide nouns up into different
>categories, it just ended up happening that way. Gender is, in fact,
>hardwired into the language component of the brain.

Don't you find it odd, then, that some languages have no expression of
that "hard-wired" feature?

No odder than that some mammals (the males) have no expression of the
hard-wired feature of mammary glands.

Much odder. The last time I looked, male mammals do indeed have an expression of mammary glands, just not a fully-developed one. Just add a few hormones...

Moreover we have plenty of evidence for the hard-wiring of the glands and their supporting structures, the hormones that trigger their development, the glands which secrete those hormones, the genes that switch their function, etc. etc.

I don't see any analogous evidence for a structured "language component", still less that any particular features are "hard-wired" into it, rather than (to maintain the computing metaphor) being programmed later, or even being an emergent consequence of some other behaviour (we see plenty of _that_ in computers :-( ).

Just because some linguistic feature (or more appropriately, the
*potential* for that feature)

Now you're changing the subject. Obviously there's a potential, or the thing itself wouldn't be possible at all.

is "hard-wired" doesn't mean every
language must have that feature.

Wrong mood. ITYM "... _if it were_ hard-wired... _wouldn't_ mean..."

--
Richard Herring
.