Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!ames!elroy!ucla-cs!uci-ics!randolph@Sun.COM From: randolph@Sun.COM (Randolph Fritz) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: The unfortunate `generic masculine' in English (long) Summary: Fascinating Message-ID: <16975@paris.ics.uci.edu> Date: 7 Jun 89 06:10:51 GMT Sender: news@paris.ics.uci.edu Reply-To: Randolph Fritz Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View Lines: 22 Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu Greg - Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting your wife's paper! It's very good to have a summary of references and a history of the emergence of the modern pronouns. I was fascinated -- I had no idea how recent the complete removal of the neuter pronouns was. These ideas of gender are ancient, yet apparently (if one can reliably extrapolate the linguistic evidence) only emerged into widespread use relatively recently. I speculate this emerged as part of the widespread sexualization of temperament, where it came to be believed that there was a "masculine" and a "feminine" personality. This opens up another question . . . I speculate that medieval Anglo-Saxons conceptualized masculine and feminine differently from us. I wonder what their ideas were? Anyone know? ++Randolph Fritz sun!randolph || randolph@sun.com "The problem is *not* to resist falling in love. The problem is to fall in love and be the wiser thereby . . ." -- Mary Catherine Bateson, "Daddy, Can a Scientist Be Wise?"