Re: Gender and grammar

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Article #2995

#2995

From: Ian Molton
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 1999 00:00

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Harlan Messinger wrote:
> 
> Kalen <paradox@intelligencia.com> wrote in message
> news:3821EFE6.940B3968@intelligencia.com...
> > "D. Edward Gund v. Brighoff" wrote:
> > > A better question is "What purposes do these sorts of classes serve?"
> >
> > And why did they call it "gender" (especially in languages where
> > there are 12 of them!)
> 
> Because the original meaning of "gender" wasn't "sex"! It comes from the
> French "genre", meaning "kind", "type", or (English has borrowed the word)
> "genre".  It came into English with these meanings. It came to be used as a
> synonym for "sex", but also to describe classes of words belonging to a
> language.

forgive me for being stupid here but gender and genre are NOT the same
word in my book...

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From: Ian Molton <ian.molton@dtn.ntl.com>
Subject: Re: Gender and grammar
Date: 1999/11/05
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