2007-03-07 06:54:58 · 10 answers · asked by Tom S 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
I hope you have males and females in English speaking countries, too. Otherwise, procreation would get a bit complicated.
What you are talking about is masculine and feminine grammatical gender. French has those two. Other languages, such as Danish, have common-gender vs. neutral gender. Other languages again, such as English and German, have three genders, masculine ('he') feminine ('she') and neuter ('it'). The difference between English and German in that respect is only that any of the three grammatical genders can apply to a particular singular noun in German, but only to persons, mammals and in some metaphorical contexts to non living entities (the ship - she; Britain - she) in English, all other nouns being automatically neuter.
The only argument necessary here is that languages are different and that it is extremely naïve to assume that the grammatical categories that apply to one's own native languages must be universally applicable to all languages.
2007-03-07 21:02:13 · answer #1 · answered by Sterz 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm not quite clear what Tom S is getting at. One cannot argue the case for a language to have a particular feature or not to have it. It's not like a parliamentary debate, where MPs can argue for or against a new law. It's a bit like asking for the arguments for or against saying "I went" and "I spoke", rather than "I goed" and "I speaked".
All natural languages have features that are illogical. If you want one that is totally logical, then learn Esperanto or invent your own new language !
Incidentally, some European languages have three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter, e.g. German, Russian, Greek etc. And there are many African languages that have even more, except that they're called 'classes' and not 'genders', but they amount to the same thing and function in a similar way. For instance, Fulfulde (spoken in Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon etc.) has eleven classes in the singular and five in the plural.
2007-03-07 15:32:29 · answer #2 · answered by deedsallan 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
The problem is that different languages have different objects in different gender groups..e.g.
Cat..is masculine in French and Portuguese and feminine in Welsh.
2007-03-07 17:36:21 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think that the rules of any language should be changed just because some people think they're difficult to learn.
2007-03-07 15:15:53 · answer #4 · answered by N.S 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
feminine and masculine wordings in french for example makes it a little bit more difficult to learn the language, but once it is learnt, it is richer and more interesting.
2007-03-07 15:07:13 · answer #5 · answered by africanmodel1 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
if you are learning the language its bad enough without having to constantly having to think about what is male and female ,for gods sake is that all that the y think of,, and how do you decide a t able is female and a chair is male or whatever think its stupid
2007-03-07 14:59:43 · answer #6 · answered by jinx 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I didn't know there was any debate on the subject. The rules of languages aren't going to be changed by popular demand, are they? So what's the point of arguments.
2007-03-07 14:59:13 · answer #7 · answered by MOM KNOWS EVERYTHING 7 · 3⤊ 2⤋
There is one argument against - it makes it a damn sight more difficult to learn the language.
There are no arguments for, other than the fact that that is the way it is..............so tough !
2007-03-07 14:58:43 · answer #8 · answered by the_lipsiot 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
if you dont speak the language its really tedious to learn and remember!
2007-03-07 15:00:07 · answer #9 · answered by Zaina 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
French are stoopid gay pigs lol!!
2007-03-07 14:58:10 · answer #10 · answered by bavwill 3 · 0⤊ 8⤋