SCALLOPINE MEXICANA

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:29 AM -0500 5/11/06, Jim Parish wrote:
>Laurence Horn wrote:
>>  <snip> (As for the "la mole mexicana" case, that
>>  would involve another reanalysis--given that it's "mole poblano", the
>>  Spanish original must be "il mole", not "la mole", which would yield
>>  "mole mexicano" rather than "mole mexicana" if this were an adjective
>>  modifying the preceding "mole" rather than the understood "moda".)
>
>My Cassell's lists "mole" as a feminine noun. (In any case, the m.sg.
>article is "el", not "il".) I have no explanation for "mole poblano".
>
>Jim Parish
>
I'll grant you the "el" (I can only plead that my daughter just
travelled from Spain to Italy and I was evidently adjusting my
determiners accordingly), but not the "la".  Let's try the final
arbiter, google.

"El mole poblano": 451 hits
"Il mole poblano": 35 hits, mostly--surprise!--in Italian
"La mole poblano": 1 hit, in French

oh, and just to complete the survey,

"Le mole poblano":  108 hits

Looks pretty masculine to me.  (As for the taste, you can decide.)

Larry

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