gender and Grammar
Dominik Wujastyk
ucgadkw at UCL.AC.UK
Wed Apr 8 14:28:42 UTC 1998
There's a delightful and (deliberately?) very funny discussion of
grammatical gender in Patanjali's Mahabhasya. It's a very long time since
I read it, but I recall him arguing that something is feminine in
grammatical gender as long as it has breasts and long hair. But why are
these features not seen in a bed (kha.tvaa, f.). Answer: they are
present, but are invisible. :-)
I've always slept more contentedly since reading that argument.
All the best,
Dominik
--
Dr Dominik Wujastyk, FAX: +44 171 611 8545
Wellcome Institute for URL: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgadkw/
the History of Medicine, Email: d.wujastyk at ucl.ac.uk
Wellcome Trust, 183 Euston Road, Trust URL: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk
London NW1 2BE, England.
First Rule of History:
History doesn't repeat itself -- historians merely repeat each other.
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