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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Gesenius on Femininity

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: Chris and Nel <wattswestmaas AT eircom.net>
  • Cc: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.Ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Gesenius on Femininity
  • Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 22:00:56 +0100

On 25/09/2006 19:03, Chris and Nel wrote:
Peter, surely you can not be serious? ...

I am absolutely serious. 19th century scholars like Gesenius speculated about reasons for grammatical gender, but 20th century linguists realised that, although there may be some explanation lost in the depths of time, the grammatical gender assignments of words without "natural gender" can only be treated as arbitrary.

... It SEEMS arbitrary and that is why I
asked. I had always thought that apart from the obvious male/female
associations the rest is just accident, but it seems quite clear that
accident has nothing to do with it, it may appear accident, but I think that
Gesenius has a point, you don't think so?

No. Your intuitions on this are better than the outmoded ones of Gesenius.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail: peter AT qaya.org
Blog: http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/





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