What Gender is a Computer

[Studlover (imported)]

A language instructor was explaining to her class that French nouns,

unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically designated as

masculine or feminine.

Things like "chalk" or "pencil," she described, would have a gender

association. For example: House is feminine -- "la" maison. In

English,

of course, words are of neutral gender.

Puzzled, one student raised his hand and asked, "What gender is a

computer?"

The teacher wasn't certain which it was, and so divided the class into

two

groups and asked them to decide if a computer should be masculine or

feminine.

One group was comprised of the women in the class, and the other of men.

Both groups were asked to give four reasons for their recommendation.

The men decided that computers should definitely be referred to in the

feminine gender (la) because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic.

2. The native language they use to communicate with other

computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term

memory for later retrieval.

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find

yourself spendin half your paycheck on accessories for it.

The group of women, however, concluded that computers should be referred

to in the masculine (le) gender because:

1. In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on.

2. They have a lot of data but are still clueless.

3. They are supposed to help you solve your problems,

but half the time they ARE the problem.

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that, if you had

waited a little longer, you could have had a better

model.

Which gender is yours?

[kb57z (imported)]

A language instructor was explaining to her class that French nouns,

unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically designated as

masculine or feminine.

Things like "chalk" or "pencil," she described, would have a gender

association. For example: House is feminine -- "la" maison. In

English,

of course, words are of neutral gender.

Which is why there are so many arguments when people use 'he' in contexts where the gender of the person referred to is irrelevant - in languages where nouns have a grammatical gender, the equivalent argument is targetting a far more fundamental part of the structure of the language.

Incidentally, would German be 'better' than French from the point of view of the list because it has neuter, as well as masculine and feminine?