I know a lot of languages have some aspects that probably seem a bit strange to non-native speakers…in the case of gendered words is there a point other than “just the way its always been” that explains it a bit better?

I don’t have gendered words in my native language, and from the outside looking in I’m not sure what gendered words actually provide in terms of context? Is there more to it that I’m not quite following?

  • @DieguiTux8623@feddit.it
    link
    fedilink
    31 year ago

    If those languages allow for zero subject pronouns (like Spanish or Italian) and the omitted noun is actually the subject this may be the case, but I speak Italian and can not think of a real world sentence where this happens because when we put emphasis on an element we tend to use a (gendered) pronoun or a noun to disambiguate anyway.

    While distinguishing gender may be sensitive for animate (although with big problems for being inclusive anyway) it makes really no sense for inanimate entities. In Italian they are assigned randomly to either gender, even loanwords can get either (usually masculine but not always). It’s a matter of style, a legacy of the past, but natural languages tend to have these “artistic” features that only embellish them without any real world advantage, violating the principle of linguistic economy.

    • @mvirts@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      21 year ago

      That makes sense, as a native English speaker I still find it hard to understand how the gendering of non-pronouns plays out in real conversation