Timeline for What should be included in a disclaimer about the omission of gender-neutral language in a bachelor's thesis?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
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| Sep 1, 2016 at 3:07 | comment | added | anomaly | It's an oversimplification to say that noun classes arise from or are primarily for the kinds of disambiguations you mention. (For one thing, that sort of sentence is not that common; adding an entire grammatical feature for it is odd.) For Indo-European languages in particular (including German and English), the original distinction was probably semantic, between animate and inanimate, possibly reinforced by an ergative-absolutive structure. The feminine noun class probably arose from overgeneralizing a feminizing suffix *-ih2. Of course, this has nothing to do with gender-neutral writing. | |
| Sep 1, 2016 at 0:16 | comment | added | grochmal | The entire question seems like a bike shed problem to me. This is the only answer that actually ask why the question may need to be asked. | |
| Aug 31, 2016 at 14:05 | comment | added | Wetlab Walter | Sorry O.R. Mapper, you're right, and I don't for a second want to pretend that I really understand why German works as it does and how it has evolved. I am still learning your language and it's a slow process for me, and obviously there's a lot more history and culture behind it than just the sounds I memorise. In fact, the more I learn it the more i'm surprised it's not the linga franca of science, since you can be very precise in German. This is probably related to the fact that smaller new words aren't just created whenever someone feels too lazy to be precise. I'm looking at you jeggings. | |
| Aug 31, 2016 at 0:18 | comment | added | Flounderer | This answer was a very interesting read; thanks! By the way, I have never met anyone who is passionate about the use of gender-neutral terms and who is also open-minded enough to have bothered to learn more than one language. | |
| Aug 30, 2016 at 19:40 | comment | added | O. R. Mapper | "i'm told by the numerous Germans sitting around me that making up new words is not something people like to do here" - I'm not sure that's the main sentiment at work here. The more specific statement I have heard (not least with respect to exactly this topic) is that having newly made-up words prescribed by others, in what is perceived as a top-down-way, rather than letting language evolve over the course of decades, is not something people like. Of course, leaving aside the issue mentioned elsewhere around here that a new grammatical gender might require its own custom declension. | |
| Aug 30, 2016 at 19:36 | comment | added | O. R. Mapper | For what it's worth, I think this "comment" does answer the question, at least after reading all the way to the end. | |
| Aug 30, 2016 at 18:54 | comment | added | jakebeal | As you noted, this is a comment and not an answer. | |
| Aug 30, 2016 at 18:44 | review | Low quality posts | |||
| Aug 30, 2016 at 20:30 | |||||
| Aug 30, 2016 at 18:39 | comment | added | Azor Ahai -him- | Your second paragraph is slightly misleading, neither English nor German derives from Latin. | |
| Aug 30, 2016 at 18:23 | history | edited | Wetlab Walter | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 264 characters in body
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| Aug 30, 2016 at 18:17 | history | answered | Wetlab Walter | CC BY-SA 3.0 |