Quell'

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:52 PM -0400 8/31/02, Douglas Bigham wrote:
>In a message dated 8/31/2002 1:39:01 PM Central Daylight Time,
>laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:
>
>
>>  Just curious--why the feminine?  How can we tell whether "(fucking)
>>  drag", "(fashion) mistake", or the noun "retarded" is modifying are
>>  feminine or masculine above?  Not that "quel" would be pronounced any
>>  differently, but...
>>
>>  larry
>>
>
>Beats me.  That's how Coupland wrote it, and I haven't noticed it in print as
>"quel", so I chose the fem. for my personal quotation as well.  I mean,
>there's really no reason, I guess.  Is there any historical preference for
>fem vs. masc French loans into English?
>
>-dsb

well, the masculine is unmarked, so I'd think that would be used all
things being equal.  On the other hand, in a couple of cases the
feminine is more established in English.  For obvious reasons, one
such is "n

>Douglas S. Bigham
>University of Texas - Austin