Idiom question

[Aaron E. Drews]

On Mon, 24 Jan 2000, Natalie Maynor wrote:

}
}"Dog" is also the U.S. term for a male canine.  But its generic use
}is more common.  Mainly just breeders or other dog professionals use
}"dog" and "bitch" to distinguish the sexes.  An ad worded like the
}the one above would be unusual in the U.S. (except maybe in specialized
}publications).  In a regular newspaper it would almost certainly say
}"3 males and 2 females."


Obviously a cultural difference.  I would guess because <sarcasm> the
American public is just too sensitive to hear that word </sarcasm>.  But I
wonder if it has to do with cultural differences of the average dog owner,
too: just to give an idea, in the US, leaving your dog at home alone while
you're at work is acceptable; in the UK it isn't.  This is entering
into social anthopology on a speculative basis, but it's a thought.

--Aaron


________________________________________________________________________
Aaron E. Drews                               The University of Edinburgh
aaron at ling.ed.ac.uk                  Departments of English Language and
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~aaron       Theoretical & Applied  Linguistics

"MERE ACCUMULATION OF OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE IS NOT PROOF"
        --Death