Gender and Dolls (was Re: Lego vs. Legos: Americanism? Regionalism?)

[Jonathan Lighter]

When I was about four I owned a rubbery simulacrum of Rootie Kazootie, a celebrity marionette on local TV. He dressed like a baseball player. I also had one of the more celebrated Howdy Doody.

  I did not call them "dolls" or "simulacra."  They were just "Howdy" and "Rootie."  Girls played with dolls. Boys played with copies of celebrity marionettes.

  And no, I don't have them anymore.

  JL

"Bradley A. Esparza" <baesparza at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Bradley A. Esparza"
Subject: Gender and Dolls (was Re: Lego vs. Legos: Americanism?
Regionalism?)
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My brothers played with their "Guys", i.e. GI Joe, Matt West, whereas I
would go play "Barbies" with Cindy Jubitz across Foxley's Field. Totally
different things, of course. I hate to remember any of those little
psychodramas.

On 7/31/07, Leslie Decker wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I was born in Central Texas in 1976 and my brother and I always played
> with /lEgos/. Plural s, 'short' e. The pronunciation lego was also
> common, though. As I did not know anything about where they came from,
> the lego pronunciation to me was just for people who pronounced egg as
> [eg] or [eig].
>
> On another note, we would never say 'play with Barbie' unless perhaps we
> were contrasting between our one Barbie and our Ken-doll. It was always
> 'play with Barbies' or 'play with Barbie-dolls.' To use Chris' example:
> "You still play with Barbies/Barbie-dolls?"
>
> Regards, Leslie
>
> Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
> > it was the "they" that pointed to a count plural usage (rather than
> > mass singular; "some Lego" is consistent with either).
> >
> > "some Lego" is not, however, consistent with a brand-name usage,
> > which would involve a bare-N proper "Lego", as in the Playmobil/
> > Barbie/Fischertechnik examples above.
> >
> > i've been struggling to make it clear that there is not one single
> > usage here. there clearly are differences between british and
> > american practices, but it also looks like everybody can use "Lego"
> > in more than one way. (note that "Barbie" has both bare-N uses, as
> > above, and clearly count uses, in "a Barbie, several Barbies" -- in
> > fact, count uses of more than one type: 'Barbie doll' and 'type of
> > Barbie doll', at least.)
> >
> > i earlier noted instances of "Lego" 'Lego set' and "Lego" 'Lego
> > construction'; both are count. you can also find instances that
> > clearly involve "Lego" 'Lego piece' (also count); i think this use is
> > american-only.
> >
> > it's not clear what's going on in any *particular* occurrence of
> > "play with Legos" (american) or "play with Lego" (british); it's
> > entirely possible that different people are working with different
> > analyses, and that one person is working with different analyses on
> > different occasions. "Legos" in "playing with Legos" could be a
> > count plural 'Lego pieces' (in which case people would be inclined to
> > lower-case it); or it could be a proper noun that's plural in form.
> > "Lego" in "playing with Lego" could be an ordinary proper noun
> > (taking singular verb and pronoun agreement); or a singular mass
> > noun; or a zero-plural count noun 'Lego pieces'.
> >
> > arnold
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
Bradley A. Esparza

"You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think." Dorothy
Parker, when asked to use the word 'horticulture' in a sentence.

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