Re: OT - to the linguists among us


"steve" <stevenc707@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:13e8l0r8rnh7if0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi
~gentley and respectfully snipped~

You've brought forward some interesting points, Steve. As one who lives on
the "left coast" and in a large metropolitan area I can certainly see the
reasoning in your well thought out explanation. I too have quite a few
friends about whom I've been asked, "are they male or female?" My pat
answer has now become, "What difference does it make." But that's just me, I
really don't care, I see them as just wonderful, intelligent, kind, talented
people and my friends so I personally don't need further categorization.

Also, sex has almost become more of a verb now days rather than an
identifying noun. Many things have changed. It used to be that when you said
"Adult" it meant get a babysitter so grown-ups can have a break from the
kids or of legal drinking age. Now "adult" seems more and more synonymous
with X thru XXX entertainment or behaviors most would not exhibit in front
of mother. Times are always changing and behavior evolves with social mores.
While I was working construction "man hole" was changed to "point of utility
access" to be more politically correct. (A prime example of let's get a grip
folks *sigh*) It was once unacceptable to even refer to anything by an
anatomical name; it was a LIMB, not LEG; be it table or human, lest you be
thought vulgar, under garments were "unmentionables" and so on......times
change, always have and will continue to do so.

I can certainly understand why Marrisa (DrQuilter), or anyone learning
English as a second language would have trouble and confusion with all these
changes that seem to happen before they are ever, *if ever* documented, and
then change again from current documentations of the changes of what becomes
common usage. It's admittedly very confusing. You toss societal quirks in
with all the exceptions to the rules of grammar and phonetics, add to that
regional and ethnic nuances and I'm amazed anyone other than a 'born native'
ever learns to understand or speak the language referred to in the USA as
"English"!! As I was told by a Brit friend, "You do *not* speak English, you
speak American." But then that really isn't correct either since American
technically refers to both North and South American continents so now we
have MORE confusion.

Val
"DrQuilter" <drquilter@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5kifubF3p69pU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
As a non-native speaker, I get confused about some things. I checked
wiki, but want to hear your opinions. When did we stop using the word
sex to refer to men and women and started using gender? Gender is "an
individual's self-conception as being male or female, as distinguished
from actual biological sex". I guess most of the time they agree, but is
it just that people shy away from using the word sex???
--

Dr.Quilter
drquilter at gmail dot com
http://community.webshots.com/user/mvignali?vhost=community




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