Another area where... «The Unfolding Of Language»
sarcastronaut11 сентября 2016Another area where languages often display erratic behaviour is what linguists call 'gender', by which they don't necessarily mean distinctions based on sex, but any classification imposed on nouns according to some of their essential properties. 'Masculine' versus 'feminine' is indeed one of the most common distinctions, but many languages choose instead (or in addition) to divide nouns into 'human' versus 'non-human', or `animate' (humans and animals) versus 'inanimate', or sometimes even `edible' versus 'non-edible'. (Which class humans then fall into depends, of course, on local custom.)
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