Idiom question

[Beverly Flanigan]

Another example of such a semantic feature set is "horse":  It often comes
up in the introductory linguistics course I supervise, and even my TAs
don't always know the differences between colt, filly, mare, gelding, and
stallion (and stud?).  (And if 'colt' is generic for M and F young, is
there a special term for the male baby?)  So you see, all this nitpicking
is relevant!

At 07:42 PM 1/24/00 +0000, you wrote:
>I asked a few people about "holy cow" referring specifically to the Queen.
>Nobody heard of it.  Maybe it's a local thing somewhere in England...
>maybe the people I asked weren't anti-monarchist enough.
>
>I'm fascinated by the whole "cow as female" vs. "cow as generic"
>discussion.  For me "cow" is only female, but if I saw a roaming bovine,
>I'd saw "cow" and not bother investigating the anatomy.
>
>The main reason I'm fascinated by the discussion is because of another
>four-legged creature: the dog.  In Britain, a "dog" is male.  It's
>generic, as well, but people advertising puppies list "3 dogs and 2
>bitches".  I thought in American, the term was "stud", but looking at my
>AHD, "stud" is another generic for any breeding male animal.  What is the
>term for a male dog?
>
>--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