[B-Greek] (B-Greek) Two in one bed

CWestf5155 at aol.com CWestf5155 at aol.com
Sat Jul 22 11:07:03 EDT 2006


 
 
In a message dated 7/21/2006 8:39:43 PM Mountain Standard Time,  
kline_dekooning at earthlink.net writes:

On Jul  21, 2006, at 3:05 PM, CWestf5155 at aol.com wrote:

> hypothetical   language that had the feminine as the
> default gender

Is there  any non-hypothetical language that has the feminine as the  
default  gender?


Elizabeth Kline





Elizabeth,
 
I've been asking myself the same question.  I don't have my copy of  "Gender" 
in the Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics series with me, but that's  where I 
would look first to answer your question.  I can't remember any  languages 
that use the feminine as the default off-hand, but some languages have  more 
than two or three genders, and they can be based on categories  such as 
animate/inanimate, or perceived connections with  dieties.  
 
Of course the generic (and, I believe, the default) is not always  masculine 
as it tends to be in the Greek (as you know, some neuters  may be generic such 
as TEKNON, but the vast majority of the words that are used  as generics are 
masculine).
 
This is really a fascinating field of study, particularly as it relates to  
translation.  The assumption of a close correspondence between biological  and 
grammatical gender breaks down quickly.
 
Cindy Westfall
Assistant Professor
McMaster Divinity College




More information about the B-Greek mailing list