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Subject:Re: Help Systems & Gender Differences From:Karen Kay <karenk -at- NETCOM -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 11 Apr 1994 16:21:39 -0700
Mike Pope said:
> Can we posit a rule that languages with complex noun classes also
> have very free syntax?
I don't know for sure, but I don't think so.
> And this one: languages with complex
> noun classes also have grammatical gender.
What does this mean? Objects don't have gender unless we
choose to anthropomorphize them. We can refer to grammatical
gender, or we can refer to noun classes 1 through 30. I
don't see any real difference. If you mean that all male
beings fall into one category, and all female beings into
another, I don't *think* that's true, but I would not be
willing to swear it.
