Subject: disc . sex / lang

a few remarks in the discussion , and comments on / to newman , meunier the widespread " constructivist " concept of personality and sex roles / language is seriously injured by what jane goodall has to say below . is my interpretation wrong that the preoccupation in feminist studies with sex roles / language , and the diffusion of that preoccupation into other corridors of the university , began as an assault on " normativity " , i . e . , knee-jerk heteropartnershipping in the late 1960s ? we are attracted to the opposite sex only because society teaches this to us . thumbs up to tolerance , real diversity , and curing the real ills of society by needs of the individual not the group ; thumbs down to intuitive scholarship , academic shamanism , and prescriptive grammas jane goodall , through a window , houghton mifflin company , boston , 1990 . " my thirty years with the chimpanzees of gombe . " ( p 118 ) one of the most important milestones in the life of a young male is when he begins to travel away from his mother with other members of the community . the severing of apron strings is far more necessary for a young male than a young female . she can learn most of what she needs to know for a successful adult life whilst remaining in her family setting . not only can she watch her mother and her mother 's friends caring for their infants , but she can actually handle them herself , gaining much of the experience which she will need later when she has a baby of her own . and she can learn , during her mother 's ` pink days ' , a good deal about sex and the demands that will subsequently be made of her in that sphere . the young male has different things to learn . there are some aspects of community life that are primarily , though not entirely , male responsibilities = adsuch as patrolling , repelling intruders , searching out distant food sources , and some kinds of hunting . he cannot gain adequate experience in such matters if he remains with his mother . he must leave her and spend time with the males . = = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d = 3d michael newman provides some welcome references in the literature that provide data more specific for what we all know generally , that some terms are semantically marked for gender - - marine , lumberjack , nurse . regarding " he " - - it has biases for masculine interpretation - - no doubt about that for the current state of the language . in centuries before modern english , and into the modern english era , " he " was also a feminine pronoun . michael newman is " skeptical of pernicious influences of grammar on ot her aspects of cognition " , whereas lydie meunier says " " studies in psychology have shown that females reading texts written in a generic-he retain less information than when they read texts using a generic plural " . newman goes on to express accord with moulton 's " kleenex effect whereby the identity of a prestigious subset is assumed by the superordinated category , with the result that people tend to think of the subset as more prototypical " . this sounds like individual-for - the-class synechdoche . i do not think that the " prestigious subset " sufficiently describes he / man phenomena , does not hit the mark head on , because it assumes man is to woman under " man " , as kleenex is to puffs under " kleenex " . i think my use of the term " tautonym " focuses a little sharper on the genus-species aspect . the difference between coke and pepsi is more like the difference between joe and john , and of a different order than that between boys and girls . i am suggesting another way to see the generic phenomenon - - in part supported by what i quoted in detail from jakobson a few posts back : a man is a living generic person , only made distinctive for sex in contrast / juxtapostion with woman . generic he / man in language describes generic he / man in-the - flesh - - as unmarked for sex . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - to lydie meunier : i am glad to know that someone on linguistic has expertise in sociolinguistic practices during biblical times . could you provide some chapters and verses about the more-or - less slavery of wives to their husbands ? it 's true there are all kinds of depravities in the bible , in f = act joshua was quite an ethnic cleanser himself . do you know if there is anything in the bible about how wives of slaves were treated , as they wou = ld be " double-slaves " ? finally , you use the word " sexism " , so popular in our = common cultural vocabulary , but , aside from it being a political slogan , = how could we most appropriately define it in its non-political slogan sense , = as you use it ? = jeff weber =
