Gendered nouns make no sense

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lostD
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18 Jan 2009, 4:45 am

Sea_of_Saiyan wrote:

In French, the female genitalia is considered to be masculine.

But the head is feminine :lol:

-ok, the brain is not but you cannot have a brain if you don't have a head-

Genders are "useless" but once you have a language that uses them it changes your way of seeing the world I guess.

carturo222
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20 Jan 2009, 1:29 pm

MR wrote:

pakled wrote:

I was told 'La Ley' is the word for 'the law'...at least in Mexico it is...

Izquierdo (sp? it's been a while) is Left ' derecho is right'.

La ley would be "the law" when referring to a specific law. As in, un ley = a law; los leyes = the laws.

All articles applied to "ley" need to be feminine. A law is "una ley" and the laws is "las leyes."

Mysty
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20 Jan 2009, 5:39 pm

carturo222 wrote:

MR wrote:

pakled wrote:

I was told 'La Ley' is the word for 'the law'...at least in Mexico it is...

Izquierdo (sp? it's been a while) is Left ' derecho is right'.

La ley would be "the law" when referring to a specific law. As in, un ley = a law; los leyes = the laws.

All articles applied to "ley" need to be feminine. A law is "una ley" and the laws is "las leyes."

Oops. Though, actually, from doing a Google search just now, "los leyes" seems to be fairly common, surprisingly so. Perhaps I did that because I've heard/read it that way. Which, however, doesn't explain why I wrote "un ley".

Dussel
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21 Jan 2009, 12:46 am

gina-ghettoprincess wrote:

Greyhound wrote:

How can a table, chair or any other inanimate object be masculine or feminine? They have genitalia or chromosomes or hormones etc. so whay are they masculine or feminine in other languages? It makes no sense.

I know, it's crazy. Sometimes in foreign languages a verb is changed if you are a boy or a girl, which I think it stupid cos how is your gender relevant to "I went to the park"?

In German it is even worst: A girl ("das Maedchen") is grammatical neuter, also Miss ("das Faeulein", old-fashioned) while a woman is female ("die Frau"). Also not all German speaking countries agree about the gender of some nouns: A tunnel is in Germany male ("der Tunnel"), in Switzerland the tunnel is neuter ("das Tunnel"); etc.

Because the declination of each article is different in the four cases of the German language (Nominative, Genitive, Dative and Accusative) and for Plural and Singular, and for the indefinite and definite articles a student had to memorize 48 declinations of the article.

Edit: It sounds complex, but is a quite logic system.

slowmutant
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27 Jan 2009, 9:47 am

Thisa is Aspie obssessiveness at its most obssessive. :roll:

Dussel
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27 Jan 2009, 10:44 am

slowmutant wrote:

Thisa is Aspie obssessiveness at its most obssessive. :roll:

It is less an obsession, but necessary if you want German correctly. Modern German is an artificial language, composed out different German dialects in 16th and 17th century. The process was mostly the work of humanistic educated people, so they formed modern German along the lines of the Latin grammar.

You may have a look into a German Grammar Book of 1663 to understand how modern German has been created and codified: http://diglib.hab.de/wdb.php?dir=drucke/ko-306

slowmutant
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27 Jan 2009, 10:47 am

Dussel wrote:

slowmutant wrote:

Thisa is Aspie obssessiveness at its most obssessive. :roll:

Do I need to? Actually, I don't give a damn how modern German was created and codified. And this is pretty OCD, believe it or not.

Sora
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27 Jan 2009, 11:17 am

Why would anything not have genera?

That's perfectly normal.

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Greyhound
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27 Jan 2009, 12:16 pm

slowmutant wrote:

Dussel wrote:

slowmutant wrote:

Thisa is Aspie obssessiveness at its most obssessive. :roll:

Do I need to? Actually, I don't give a damn how modern German was created and codified. And this is pretty OCD, believe it or not.

slowmutant, this is unlike you

What is wrong with linguistic interest? It can also not be defined as obsessive compulsive disorder unless you know enough to prove fulfilment of all criteria, which you cannot do based on a couple of forum posts.

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WurdBendur
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27 Jan 2009, 1:40 pm

Dussel wrote:

Modern German is an artificial language, composed out different German dialects in 16th and 17th century. The process was mostly the work of humanistic educated people, so they formed modern German along the lines of the Latin grammar.

You may have a look into a German Grammar Book of 1663 to understand how modern German has been created and codified: http://diglib.hab.de/wdb.php?dir=drucke/ko-306

Sure the grammarians of many languages have been influenced by Latin (and largely ignored), but calling it an artificial language is quite a stretch. That's the stuff of Edo Nyland.

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twoshots
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27 Jan 2009, 2:20 pm

Greyhound wrote:

slowmutant, this is unlike you

It's his usual reaction when people start discussing abstruse topics. Don't let it get to you.

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slowmutant
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27 Jan 2009, 7:32 pm

Greyhound wrote:

slowmutant wrote:

Dussel wrote:

slowmutant wrote:

Thisa is Aspie obssessiveness at its most obssessive. :roll:

Do I need to? Actually, I don't give a damn how modern German was created and codified. And this is pretty OCD, believe it or not.

slowmutant, this is unlike you

I'm sorry, I was in a bad mood when I wrote that. I meant it then, but not now. It was a mood swing that happens shortly after I take my meds.

Dussel
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28 Jan 2009, 5:26 am

WurdBendur wrote:

Dussel wrote:

Sure the grammarians of many languages have been influenced by Latin (and largely ignored), but calling it an artificial language is quite a stretch. That's the stuff of Edo Nyland.

Not really - if you read German texts prior approx. 1530 you find a strong variation in grammar and spelling. According to Martin Luther's own account he used the "Kursaechische Kanzleisprache" (the "language of the Chancellery of Electoral Saxonian ), which was a composed language under the purpose to be understood by all German speaker.

People like Valentin Ickelsamer (1534, Teutsche Grammatica) and Johannes Clajus (1578, Grammatica Germanicae Linguae) finally brought this into a system, which is still thought on German school.

slowmutant
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28 Jan 2009, 6:09 am

Gendered nouns make sense. Why? Because of gendered people. If we were all hermaphroditic, language wouldn't have them.

Greyhound
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28 Jan 2009, 8:33 am

slowmutant wrote:

Greyhound wrote:

slowmutant wrote:

Dussel wrote:

slowmutant wrote:

Thisa is Aspie obssessiveness at its most obssessive. :roll:

Do I need to? Actually, I don't give a damn how modern German was created and codified. And this is pretty OCD, believe it or not.

slowmutant, this is unlike you

I'm sorry, I was in a bad mood when I wrote that. I meant it then, but not now. It was a mood swing that happens shortly after I take my meds.

Oh, okay.

slowmutant wrote:

Gendered nouns make sense. Why? Because of gendered people. If we were all hermaphroditic, language wouldn't have them.

We're not talking about genders referring to people but those referring to inanimate objects (which have no gender, unless of course your furniture has genitalia

slowmutant
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28 Jan 2009, 8:38 am

Quote:

unless of course your furniture has genitalia

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