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Path: utzoo!watmath!watnot!watrose!cctimar
From: cctimar@watrose.UUCP (Cary Timar)
Newsgroups: net.books,sci.lang
Subject: Gender distinctions
Message-ID: <8224@watrose.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 26-Oct-86 00:31:38 EST
Article-I.D.: watrose.8224
Posted: Sun Oct 26 00:31:38 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 26-Oct-86 04:11:05 EST
References: <16227@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <2177@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU>
Reply-To: cctimar@watrose.UUCP (Cary Timar)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 19
Keywords: English has them too
Xref: watmath net.books:4340 sci.lang:45
Summary: Not a yes/no characteristic of languages

In article <2177@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> rose@sdcsvax.UUCP (Dan Rose) writes:
>in such things as translations between languages which have no
>distinction between gender and those which do, etc.

How do we count English?  According to anglophones, English does not
distinguish genders, unlike French, German, Spanish, Latin, and all
those other languages they teach in school.  On the other hand, immigrants
whose native languages do not distinguish "he" from "she" (e.g. Hungarian)
would probably say that English does have gender distinctions (this is why
some say "I met John.  She is ...") It is likely that some language has
weaker gender distinctions than Hungarian (which distinguishes "he/she"
from "it").  Possibly, there are also languages with more complex gender
rules (not the same as more genders) than Latin or German.

I don't think that gender distinctions are a yes/no characteristic of
languages.  The question is when and how a language distinguishes gender.
-- 

			-- Cary Timar