Bullshit people claim about languages, part #94731

[pauamma]

But the fact of the matter is that gender is a linguistic term with a hard meaning.
So is "etymological fallacy"For example, all languages have gender pronouns, [...]
Er, no. Not even most, and even of those who do, a large number don't use sex as a basis for assigning gender.

(Inspired by some statements in idiotolects, pronouns, gender, possessives

Comments

[pne]

I think you have a problem in your HTML.

[pauamma]

Thanks, fixed.

[pne]

A favourite European counterexample is Finnish, which not only has no gendered pronouns (only an animate/inanimate distinction in the 3rd person) - but at least in colloquial language, tends to use the inanimate pronoun universally! (Effectively calling everything and everybody "it".)

neat!

[locriansax]

Heh, that is interesting to know about Finnish (didn't know that!), as I *think* most English speakers use "they" in English when one is unsure of the gender of the person or wish to hide it to not reveal identity in conversation.

Re: neat!

[ammesor0]

Agreed. I feel like only the Bible consistently uses he/man to refer to everyone.

Re: neat!

[marnanel]

I'd imagine that depended on the translation you were reading.

[gr_cl]

The replacement of "sex" by "gender" is a great example of the euphemism treadmill. No doubt in 100 years "gender" will have a naughty meaning, and we'll need to find yet another word to replace it.

[muckefuck]

I don't think it's a case of euphemism per se. In the social sciences, these are distinct concepts, with "sex" referring narrowly to biological sex and "gender" covering all the social means (including linguistic means) by which sex roles are expressed.

[gr_cl]

There are no doubt technical distinctions made by social scientists, but I bet that 9 out of 10 people using "gender" these days really mean "sex" and are avoiding the latter word because of its connotations.

[muckefuck]

Do you find that non-academics often talk explicitly about "gender"? The only place I really come across the word in the big wide world is on official forms, and I'm all for that change because--outside of the medical establishment--they really do mean "gender" and not "sex".

[prochronism]

Wow, that link. What an angry little fellow. The misinformation is just the cherry on top of the cis-privilege cake right there.

[espreite]

God forbid words have, gasp, more than one meaning. *facepalm*

The link to that mappy website is AWESOME, thanks for sharing :D