>Gender is a grammatical term, (i.e. a set of classes of nouns), it has
>nothing to do with sex. Animals have a sex (and humans are animals) and
>nouns have a gender. I don't like that in this "politically correct" world,
>we must misuse the English language. In German, a car is "das Auto"
>(neuter) or "der Wagon" (masculine). Did the sex of the car change, or only
>the gender of the noun ? I submit only the gender of the noun changed, and
>not the sex of the object of the adjective.
>
>"Jay"
>John S. van Syckel
John,
I'm pretty well aware that gender is also a grammatical term, but to
believe that it is exclusively such is ignoring the other legitimate use
entirely. It is absolutely NOT incorrect for me, when asked my gender, to
say "male". When we speak of gender roles or gender issues, are we talking
about das Auto vs. der Wagon? I think not. To try to divorce gender from
sex might be a cunning tactic to confound the PC types and circumvent their
efforts at "gender neutral" language, but it's simply not correct English,
and your calling it a misuse of English is both pompous and plain old
wrong.
Nevin
|