Two other countries separated by a common language

[Dennis Preston]

arnold,

My UG students a year ago didn't even know the sex of cows, let alone
the ball-less status of steers.

dInIs

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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: Two other countries separated by a common language
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>
>On Oct 1, 2007, at 7:15 AM, Doug Harris wrote:
>
>>  Except, of course, when you're seeing cutsie somethings
>>  such as cowboys / cowgirls, steers / heifers, jacks /jills,
>>  and my personal favorite (!): talkers / gawkers.
>
>this would be the verbal women / visual men stereotypes, right?  i
>ask because the other pairs are in the order male/female, while this
>one looks like female/male.
>
>"talkers" and "gawkers" are often paired with one another, in one
>order or the other, but without reference to sex differences.
>
>"steers" vs. "heifers" is on odd pairing, since the words do more
>than distinguish male and female bovines.  "steers" is especially
>unfortunate, since steers are *castrated*.
>
>arnold
>
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--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Morrill Hall 15-C
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48864 USA

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