llf@houxz.UUCP (08/11/83)
A couple of comments:
a number of people refer to me as 'Mr. Feng', including my office mate
a number of people refer to me as 'Mrs. Feng', until they find out I'm
not married to my brother
What I don't understand is why folks get so worked up about it. To tell the
truth, I'd be honored to be a 'wise man', except that I don't know anything
about UNIX(tm) or Fortran.
I think Laura has a good idea, it'd be fun to call everyone an 'it'. It's
normal in Chinese as he/she/they/it are all pronounced 'ta', and the different
written forms of the word are not usually used - folks are too lazy to remember
to keep switching back and forth, and the written 'he' is generic.
If you really want to get specific, why not use you (singular) and you_all
(plural)? Just be glad we're not speaking some REALLY specific language.
(like French, is German/Spanish as picky about gender?) One of the reasons
I gave up French courses was because I never could remember if it was
'the (fem.) door' or 'the (masc.) door'!
If anyone's interested in the usage of he/she, you might like U. K. LeGuin's
book 'The Left Hand of Darkness'.
taking it easy
Lynda Fengdave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (08/12/83)
Lynda Feng (houxz!llf) has a point about English being somewhat less
gender-oriented than some languages. German and Spanish do indeed have
a gender (M, F or neuter in German, M/F in Spanish) associated with
every noun. Hebrew goes further: the verb form is different. You
cannot express something as simple as "The doctor saw me" without
identifying the gender of the doctor in most languages. In the case
of Hebrew, even "I think this", sent over the net, would identify
the gender of the person making the statement.
Dave Sherman, Toronto
--
{linus,cornell,watmath,ihnp4,floyd,allegra,utzoo,uw-beaver}!utcsrgv!dave