[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
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