Paul Bartlett | Re: [LFN] el

• Autor: Paul Bartlett (“bartlett22183”)
• Tema: Re: [LFN] el
• Data: 2013-03-19 12:53
• Mesaje: 3585 (a supra, presedente, seguente)

On Tue, 19 Mar 2013 03:37:07 -0400, mkhovila <alivoh@...> wrote:

> Why is "el" used for both "he/him" and "she/her"? How do you translate a
> sentence like:
>
> "El dona la gato a el."
>
> How do you know if it means "He gives the cat to her" or "She gives the
> cat to him"?

You might ask in Finland. To the best of my information, the Finns are a
sophisticated, cultured, educated people, but the Finnish language does
not have any he/she/it distinction. For that matter, many language users
cannot understand how English has an indifferent "they" for third person
plural pronouns. They males? They females? They neuters? They mixed sex?
How can English possibly get along in the universe without making all
these careful distinctions? How can English possibly get along without
distinguishing between "we including you to whom I am speaking" and "we
not including you to whom I am speaking," as do some languages? Ever since
"thou" and "ye" dropped out, English has only the indifferent "you" for
both singular and plural, a difference which users of some languages
consider absolutely crucial, but we get along without it. What is familiar
to us in our native language is not necessarily Writ Large In The Nature
Of The Cosmos. Should we have the six verbal moods of ancient Greek?

--
Paul Bartlett