🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug5.194441.6056@alf.uib.no> hlirg@alf.uib.no (Roger Greenwald) writes:
>In article <1992Aug5.103147.20713@discus.technion.ac.il> davidba@carmel.technion.ac.il (David Ben_Ami) writes:
>>
>>Hebrew is even worse than English in this respect, we differ by gender
>>also in the first and second person. (There is no gender-specific first
>>person pronoun but there is seperate conjugations).
>
>Please tell us why you think it is so terrible that FIRST person
>should have a gender marking? I would assume that in 99.99% of
>cases, the SPEAKER is in fact either a male or a female.
>And in 99.99% of cases, in person or on the phone, the person
>spoking to will know whether the speaker is a male or a female.
>In most cases of writing where the author's name is attached,
>this will also be the case. Someone who wished for some reason
>to hide gender behind initials or a pseudonym or whatever
>can also, of course, change the gender marking in the text.
>
>Or do you perhaps think it is terrible that everyone IS
>a male or a female?
>--
>Roger Greenwald
>Greenwald@hf.uib.no (address valid only until 10 August 1992)

Oh, I find nothing terrible in this fact at all (both the use of first
person marking for gender and in being male or female).

I used the word "worse" only in the vein of the posting that I answered
there the poster protested (as I understood it) that there isn't a
neutral 3rd person gender in English - I merely added that in this
scale Hebrew is worse. I think it's indeed more logical to mark gender
in cases of human beings in order to facilitate understanding and
communication. Actually when I studied English I had difficulties in
figuring out gender from the context (until I got used to it).

Hope this clears the issue, David.

-- 
=============================================================================
  David Ben-Ami (irc: bigdav)      |   "I can resist anything but Temptation"
  s2780369@Techst02.Technion.Ac.Il |       Oscar Wilde
  davidba@Carmel.Technion.Ac.Il  davidba@Moav.Techniona.Ac.Il