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Lack of Noun Gender in English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5365 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 105 of 126 28 December 2013 at 4:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
Because we like grouping things together, however arbitrarily, but presumably in this case mainly by size or shape or other visable attribute. Because different tribes/dialects came up with different noun classifiers, and when it all merged, various classifiers remained with various nouns or got mixed up with others. (PS: This is not necessarily correct) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Papashaw1 Newbie Australia Joined 3836 days ago 30 posts - 35 votes | Message 106 of 126 01 January 2014 at 11:20am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think losing gender may be a sign of a language no longer being used for culture but just as a means of
communication. Relatively, not entirely. And some never got them. Nomadic Turkish tribes never settled in one place in order to heavily influence their languages. Edited by Papashaw1 on 01 January 2014 at 11:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4058 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 107 of 126 01 January 2014 at 1:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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to Stolan:
this has probably come up many many times but it is a widely accepted theory that the Indo-European gender systems were born of an animate-inanimate system present in early stages of Proto-indo-european. The logic was that things were grouped into being moving, alive things such as people, animals and so on, and unanimate such as stones and lakes and whatnot. Since the entire system has more or less collapsed what comes to meaning and become an arbitrary system only a few languages have managed to escape. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Stolan Senior Member United States Joined 3837 days ago 274 posts - 368 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Thai, Lowland Scots Studies: Arabic (classical), Cantonese | Message 108 of 126 01 January 2014 at 5:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Indeed, inflecting for case is no biggie, but gender multiplying the adjective and cases factors to a triple really stick
out. Having the gender is tough, but agreeing for it? Couldn't they just refer to the door as a she and leave it at that? Ah but we can't expect things to make sense. Edited by Stolan on 01 January 2014 at 5:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4512 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 109 of 126 02 January 2014 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
Huh? How does that even compute? I guess all Finns and Hungarians are uncultured and only talk for communication or something. Edited by tarvos on 02 January 2014 at 4:17pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5235 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 110 of 126 02 January 2014 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
Rare as it may be, on this occasion I have to concur with tarvos: what in the world does "...no longer being used for culture mean"? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5033 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 111 of 126 02 January 2014 at 8:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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New members say the damnedest things.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5033 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 112 of 126 02 January 2014 at 8:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It's worth pointing out, as others have, that genders, at least in the Indo-European case, developed largely in cultures without writing. The Anatolian branch DID have writing and an animate/non-animate gender. But, so far as I know, in the branches that developed the three gender distinction we know and love--Italic, Greek, German, Slavic, etc.--writing came along long after genders developed. Most likely, the Anatolian languages broke off before the full threefold gender distinction arose in the PIE core.
Regardless, point being, genders arose in this case when language was presumably only being used for communication (assuming that that means only verbal and not written--if it doesn't mean that, I have no idea what it means). 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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