4.1296 Gender (Grammar) (3/52)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Mon, 29 Apr 91 23:19:10 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 1296. Monday, 29 Apr 1991.
(1) Date: Wed, 24 Apr 91 10:15:45 GMT (11 lines)
From: viden@logos.class.gu.se (Gunhild Viden)
Subject: Re: 4.1279 Gender
(2) Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1991 13:52 EST (27 lines)
From: Jozsef Borocz <JBOROCZ@JHUVM>
Subject: gender of months
(3) Date: Thu, 25 Apr 91 16:45:20 -0500 (14 lines)
From: Dennis Baron <baron@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: gender in English
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 91 10:15:45 GMT
From: viden@logos.class.gu.se (Gunhild Viden)
Subject: Re: 4.1279 Gender (2/26)
As to Dana Cartwright's question: You cannot compare German and
English in the case of gender. In German gender is grammatical, i. e.
every word is gender specified, in most cases without bearing to its
natural gender if there is any (most well-known example M"adchen,
girl, which i
neuter because it is a diminutive). My guess is that
the German classification was based on morphological similarities.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------33----
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1991 13:52 EST
From: Jozsef Borocz <JBOROCZ@JHUVM>
Subject: gender of months
Re: gender, speech, and months, (from a Hungarian point of view)
the experiment mentioned (concerning the grammatical gender of months)
would be very interesting to repeat in Hungarian, indeed. The reasons
are:
_ember_ means 'human' (and in partly outdated denotation, also 'man')
which implies that Sept-ember through Dec-ember would be taken
care of...
on the other hand, Hungarian does not have grammatical gender at all
(not even for personal pronouns in third person singular).
Anyway. Best of discussions: Jozsef Borocz
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Jozsef Borocz (301)338-7636 (office)
Department of Sociology (301)366-7762 (home)
The Johns Hopkins University jebe@jhuvm.bitnet or:
Baltimore, MD 21218 USA jborocz@jhuvm.bitnet or:
jebe@jhuvm.hcf.jhu.edu or:
jborocz@jhuvm.hcf.jhu.edu
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(3) --------------------------------------------------------------25----
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 91 16:45:20 -0500
From: Dennis Baron <baron@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: gender in English
Dana Cartwright asks about studies of gender assigned to inanimates in
English. Perhaps the most detailed is Artur Knutson, 1905, <The gender
of words denoting living beings in English>, Lund. In addition, try
T. Hilding Svartgren. 1927. "Feminine gender in Anglo-American" <American
Speech> 3:83-113. Svartgren 1928. "The use of the personal gender for
inanimate things." <Dialect Notes> 6:7-56. Svartgren 1954, "The use of
feminine gender for inanimate things in American colloquial speech"
<Moderna Sprak> 48:261-92. I'm not sure we would agree with their
theories, but these represent significant collections of data, dated
though they be.