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Does Anyone Know Why?

Aspergers_Aspie said:
Anyone else confused why people call non living thing things she? Like a boat. Why sometimes people call the ground the floor? As the floor is indoors and the ground is outdoors
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Every noun in the Spanish language is feminine or masculine. English has borrowed the tradition from its Latin roots. I think it's rather charming that ships are female in English, too.

I've never considered one language as superior to another but I certainly understand cultural pride in one's native tongue when it is criticized by outsiders. :rolleyes:
 
My screen shows the OP as early this morning.
full
 
Crossbreed said:
I just checked various Romance languages. It was only feminine in Italian.
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Not so, Crossbreed. Other Spanish words for boats include lancha, chalupa, and salsera, all are feminine words.

Christopher Columbus, flying a Spanish flag, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a ship named La Santa Maria (the Virgin Mary). It has been a longstanding maritime tradition to give boats the names of women, and boats in the past had female figureheads mounted on the bow. The reasons for the tradition is lost in time but there is no doubt that boats are viewed as feminine in many cultures.
 
If you personalize things or add human attributes- it's easier to sell things. So there psychological reasons to maybe not assign gender but human- like nuances. My parents always had names for their cars. Usually masculine. I started falling in love with my car after my 5 th accident. Don't ask, divorce related craziness. Like a guy crossed oncoming traffic lane just to turn into my car. This was at very start of divorce. So l assigned my car nongender since it didn't identify with either gender. I had a hard time giving it up. It was my first freedom step towards getting away from abusive men.
 
Haha. I drove half across the US to leave ex. Pretty sure he was the reason behind this. I was getting ready to ask for alimony that week. So it all ties together. I didn't know anybody in that city. Nothing l was able to prove. But he had damaged my car when l was married.
 
I've struggled with some phrases when I was younger and some things like people starting sentences with the word so still annoy me but she referring to boats and cars etc kinda makes sense to me.there are no real rules when to use he or she however, its just a bit of fun.
 
Is funny, we as english speaking humans (dunno if other languages do a similar thing) use phrases that don't make sense if you really think about it. Which from what i hear is something some people with asd do. :)
 
Many languages assign genders to non-living objects and they don't always agree. For example, I think a table is considered female in French but male in Italian. In some languages, things can be male, female, or neuter. For example, girls in German are considered neuter.
 
Mush said:
I’ve had the same argument with a friend from Poland many times, where he claims in their language a plethora everyday objects are assigned genders.
He tried to convince me it was a more elevated and advanced language than English (not that I even care).

I told him it is stupid and infantile to assign genders to non-living things. We agreed to disagree.
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Rather than argue, try to come up with funny responses to prove your point for such small things.
For instance, in this case, you tell her that other romance languages don't have enough gender pronouns. Why not ones for "it"? Also, even though pronouns have a standard, what's to prevent one from using another article? For instance, what's stopping one from saying "la pantalon" instead of "le pantalon"? You could have guy looking pants that a woman would wear. Is that what this would imply? Probably depends on the context. Try to make the arguments fun /light-hearted. You don't have to agree, but you don't have to be upset at each other either if that's the case.
 
Aspergers_Aspie said:
Anyone else confused why people call non living thing things she? Like a boat. Why sometimes people call the ground the floor? As the floor is indoors and the ground is outdoors
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People make categories out of everything. Like, to a computer, a 2016 Honda Accord EX is a 2016 Honda Accord EX. To humans it’s a “car”

You’ve might have pointed out the last piece of the puzzle towards solving artificial intillegence. Now Skynet will be activated and the machines will kill us all ;0)
 
The funny thing is that at one time women weren't allowed on boats or ships because they thought it was bad luck, yet the sailors would refer to the vessels as a "she" and give them female-sounding names.
 
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