TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Help Systems & Gender Differences From:Karen Kay <karenk -at- NETCOM -dot- COM> Date:Sat, 9 Apr 1994 15:12:48 -0700
Andreas Ramos said:
> It doesn't seem to me to be so arbitrary.
It *is* arbitrary. Whether a language has noun classes or not
is arbitrary, and how those categories are expressied is
arbitrary. There are lots of languages without noun classes
> There are some deep grammar rules at work here.
Some of it is phonological, too.
> It may be arbitrary that we only have three genders (male, female,
> neuter) vs. seventeen in other langauges, but there are genders,
> nevertheless, or perhaps "personality types".
That's the point: there are natural categories, but the assigning
of gender to them, rather than nb. as in Bantu, is arbitrary. The
assignation of gender is demonstrably not, as you seem to be
arguing, a basic human need.
