quote:Originally posted by Reshpeckobiggle: I'm making a few assumptions yes, mostly based upon differences I find between English and Spanish. I think I know what you mean about Natural and Grammatical gender, and it is this difference that causes me to believe that I have a point and you are missing it. I could be wrong.
Yes, I think you're wrong. I get your point. You've restated it several times now. My point is that just because a word belongs to the feminine gender in Latin doesn't mean it's a girl's name. And yes, you can throw out examples like Maria and Mario, but that doesn't mean that Indiana is analogous.
For starters, it's not even real Latin, and if it were, it would be a strangely formed word. India is a place name. Add an -n and it becomes an adjective referring to that place name. But then we tack on another -a to turn it back into a place name. So I think we can safely say that it's not really Latin, but merely an English word that happens to resemble Latin.
quote:I too am sorry that Rakeesh may not receive the satisfaction of my eternal defeat for which he obviously so desperately seeks, but since you and I know that there are Noam Chompsky-ish areas of language that prevent a complete melding of ideas (I am referring to the idea that language may influence basic ideas and prejudices), can we not agree that I am way wrong if we stay within an English language paradigm, but stepping out into the larger world... I might be on to something?
Doubtful. And anyway, what's the point of analyzing an English word from a world paradigm? Do you honestly think anyone in the world cares that we have a male movie character name named Indiana? Do you have any evidence to show that the rest of the world is pointing their fingers at us and laughing because of it?
I'm really curious about what you mean by "Noam Chompsky-ish [sic] areas of language" and why you think Chomsky has anything to do with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
You got me there, I was just speaking from memory of a Cultural Anthropology class from about 3 years ago. Hence, the misspelling of Chomsky's name and the misattribution of the relevant hypothesis.
I think you're taking all of this a little too far, Jon. Regardless of my tortured logic, which I have been making up on the fly, my original statement was to represent that Spanish speakers find it humorous that movie hero whom we (or I, at least) consider to be the epitome of masculinity... HAS A GIRL'S NAME!!!
Posts: 1286 | Registered: Dec 2005
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quote:I think you're taking all of this a little too far, Jon. Regardless of my tortured logic, which I have been making up on the fly, my original statement was to represent that Spanish speakers find it humorous that movie hero whom we (or I, at least) consider to be the epitome of masculinity... HAS A GIRL'S NAME!!!
Well, I guess that's like saying, "I was wrong."
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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I much prefer when people take proper nouns and make them into Latin - especially with cases: see "Californiensis," "Arizonensis," and most relevantly, "Indianensis."
I am not a fan of "Modern Latin."
I am, however, a huge fan of the interior of Dr. Jones' house.
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quote:Originally posted by Reshpeckobiggle: I think you're taking all of this a little too far, Jon. Regardless of my tortured logic, which I have been making up on the fly, my original statement was to represent that Spanish speakers find it humorous that movie hero whom we (or I, at least) consider to be the epitome of masculinity... HAS A GIRL'S NAME!!!
*laugh*
You're the one spouting off misinformation left and right to try to support a ridiculous and irrelevant opinion, and I'm the one taking it too far? Okay, whatever.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
What, are those supposed to be genitive constructs or something? I'm mostly seeing those in binomial nomenclature (species designations). I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of the -ensis suffix.
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