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From: harnad@mind.UUCP (Stevan Harnad)
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Gender distinctions
Message-ID: <206@mind.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Nov-86 11:41:56 EST
Article-I.D.: mind.206
Posted: Mon Nov 10 11:41:56 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Nov-86 21:13:17 EST
References: <16227@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <2177@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU> <1087@mmm.UUCP>
Organization: Cognitive Science, Princeton University
Lines: 26
Summary: Correlation and Causation

In article <1087@mmm.UUCP>, cipher@mmm.UUCP (Andre Guirard) writes:
> In article <1277@megaron.UUCP> debray@megaron.UUCP writes:
> > Bengali [and other languages] have only one third person pronoun, roughly
> >equivalent to "it". [This] doesn't change the fact that these societies are
> >extremely sexist.
> [This is no] counter-example to the statement that "sexist language can cause
> sexist attitudes."  I don't think I've heard anybody claim that sexist
> language is the _sole_ cause of sexist attitudes.
> It's as if I said, "The rabbits are getting into my garden and eating
> my lettuce," and you replied, "No, it can't be rabbits, because there
> are no rabbits where I live and still something eats the lettuce in my garden"

Not quite. I would say that the burden of proof for the thesis that
linguistic gender plays a causal role in sex discrimination includes
sorting out the causal and the noncausal correlations. The negative
evidence from Bengali (and let me add Hungarian to that list)
definitely counts against this thesis.

[I have a not-yet-published paper on this, entitled: "The Neutering of the
English Tongue: Reflections on Current Trends in `Nonsexist' Usage." Limited
preprints are available on request, but you have to supply the postage.]
-- 

Stevan Harnad                                  (609) - 921 7771
{allegra, bellcore, seismo, rutgers, packard}  !princeton!mind!harnad
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