Timeline for Do you perceive nouns ending with -a as somewhat feminine?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 30, 2015 at 9:18 | comment | added | Owen | @Anixx A concept is an idea, whereas a word is the linguistic unit made of letters or sounds that represents it. | |
| Jan 23, 2015 at 18:01 | comment | added | Anixx | @Owen what's difference between words and concepts? | |
| Jan 23, 2015 at 17:27 | comment | added | Owen | I think the important thing to see here, is that although concepts may have gender (often feminine for things without natural gender, like America) in English, words do not. Even "male" and "female" themselves don't feel very different at the word level. They simply signify different concepts. | |
| Jan 23, 2015 at 14:21 | comment | added | eques | also, nations and abstractions (like Liberty) are often personified as feminine, apart from existing icons like Uncle Sam. | |
| Jan 23, 2015 at 11:48 | comment | added | hunter | A person named America would probably be a woman, since for people's names, ending in "-a" is feminine. So if you say "draw a person named America" I'd draw a woman. If you said "draw someone personifying America" I'd probably draw Uncle Sam. | |
| Jan 23, 2015 at 11:46 | comment | added | Anixx | So if you to draw a picture of a person named America (as opposed to Uncle Sam) or Antarctica, and personifying the continent, you are equally likely drawing a woman and a bearded man? | |
| Jan 23, 2015 at 11:40 | history | answered | hunter | CC BY-SA 3.0 |