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Re: [OT] Grammatic gender
From: |
Erik Ronström |
Subject: |
Re: [OT] Grammatic gender |
Date: |
Thu, 16 Nov 2017 00:21:34 +0100 |
Swedish (if anyone’s interested) has two grammatical genders, but they are not
connected to male/female. Third person singular ”den”/”det” would both just
translate to ”it” in English, whereas ”han” and ”hon” (”he” and ”she”) are
separate pronouns only used for people (plus animals and things to which you
have a personal relation).
(So I don’t know if you could say that we technically have four grammatical
genders, I have a vague memory from my school time about it)
Erik
> 15 nov. 2017 kl. 23:32 skrev Wol's lists <address@hidden>:
>
> On 15/11/17 20:32, David Kastrup wrote:
>> David Wright <address@hidden> writes:
>>> On Wed 15 Nov 2017 at 11:56:07 (-0500), Kieren MacMillan wrote:
>>>> Hi Simon,
>>>>
>
>>>
>>> A duchess has gender, but I don't see that the word "duchess" has
>>> grammatical gender. How is that expressed?
>> "The duchess ate her lunch" as opposed to "The duchess ate its lunch"?
>> German: "Das Mädchen aß seine Mahlzeit.".
>
> Except that "her" refers to the person, not the noun ...
>
> Mind you, I would feel happy with the following:
> The cat ate its lunch (indeterminate gender)
> The tom ate its lunch (we know it's male because it's a tom)
> The queen ate its lunch (we know it's female because it's a queen)
>
> But I suspect that's because we rarely use "tom" or "queen", and your mind
> substitutes the indeterminate "cat".
>>>>> It may seem so, because the articles for all three genders are the
>>>>> same, but words are referred to by ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘it’. In
>>>>> English the sun is male, the moon female
>>>>
>>>> I've spoken English my entire life, and I have literally never heard
>>>> an exchange like:
>>>>
>>>> Q: Is the sun up yet?
>>>> A: Yes — he rose an hour ago.
>>>
>>> Neither have I, though there is the song "The sun has got his hat on".
>>> Again, personification, not grammar.
>> "Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines
>> And often is his gold complexion dimm'd"
>> Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare.
> But again, personification, not grammar. To me that feels slightly weird - as
> far as I am concerned the sun is "it".
>
> Cheers,
> Wol
>
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- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, (continued)
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, Blöchl Bernhard, 2017/11/15
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, Helge Kruse, 2017/11/15
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, Kieren MacMillan, 2017/11/15
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, Karlin High, 2017/11/15
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, David Wright, 2017/11/15
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, David Kastrup, 2017/11/15
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, Wol's lists, 2017/11/15
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender,
Erik Ronström <=
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, David Wright, 2017/11/15
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, N. Andrew Walsh, 2017/11/16
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, David Kastrup, 2017/11/16
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, Karlin High, 2017/11/16
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, Wols Lists, 2017/11/16
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, Werner Arnhold, 2017/11/16
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, Simon Albrecht, 2017/11/16
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, Henning Hraban Ramm, 2017/11/17
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, Knut Petersen, 2017/11/17
- Re: [OT] Grammatic gender, Blöchl Bernhard, 2017/11/17