Oddly enough, in some news stories Zardari is called the widow...! See the
first two items under a google search for "Zardari widow" (but subsequently
corrected on the site itself)
-db
1. Asif Ali *Zardari* Profile - Profile of Pakistan's Asif Ali *Zardari*
*...* <http://middleeast.about.com/od/pakistan/p/me080824.htm> - 11:19amAsif
Ali *Zardari*, husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, *...* Asif Ali *
Zardari* Profile - Profile of Pakistan's Asif Ali *Zardari*, *Widow* of
Benazir Bhutto *...*
middleeast.about.com/od/pakistan/p/me080824.htm - 26k -
Cached<http://74.125.95.104/search?q=cache:yVOSm6ZXZxIJ:middleeast.about.com/od/pakistan/p/me080824.htm+zardari+widow&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us>-
Similar
pages<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=related:middleeast.about.com/od/pakistan/p/me080824.htm>-
Note
this<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=zardari+widow&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=#>
2. Pakistan: Benazir Bhutto's *Widow*, Asif Ali *Zardari*, Wins
*...*<http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Pakistan-Benazir-Bhuttos-Widow-Asif-Ali-Zardari-Wins-Presidency/Article/200809115094145?f=rss>
- 11:19amThe widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has been
elected president of Pakistan, officials have said.
news.sky.com/.../Article/200809115094145?f=rss - Similar
pages<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=related:news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Pakistan-Benazir-Bhuttos-Widow-Asif-Ali-Zardari-Wins-Presidency/Article/200809115094145?f=rss>-
Note
this<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=zardari+widow&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=#>
On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 11:00 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: "X's widower"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Are there many - or any - people still around who learned as I did
> that a baby is an "it" and not a "he" or a "she"?
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 10:39 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: "X's widower"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > From "Q. Pheevr"'s blog (http://q-pheevr.livejournal.com/53663.html),
> > quoted by permission:
> >
> > Linguistic history is made in Islamabad (and New York)
> > 07 September 2008 @ 17:16
> >
> > The world has come a long way in the past third of a century or so. In
> > 1975, Robin Lakoff's book Language and Women's Place had the following
> > to say about widows and widowers:
> >
> > Surely a bereaved husband and a bereaved wife are equivalent: they
> > have both undergone the loss of a mate. But in fact, linguistically at
> > any rate, this is not true. It is true that we have two words, widow
> > and widower; but here again, widow is far commoner in use. Widows, not
> > widowers, have their particular roles in folklore and tradition, and
> > mourning behavior of particular sorts seems to be expected more
> > strongly, and for a longer time, of a widow than of a widower. But
> > there is more than this, as evidenced by the following:
> >
> > 24.
> > 1. Mary is John's widow.
> > 2. *John is Mary's widower.
> >
> > Like mistress, widow commonly occurs with a possessive preceding
> > it, the name of the woman's late husband. Though he is dead, she is
> > still defined by her relationship to him. But the bereaved husband is
> > no longer defined in terms of his wife. While she is alive, he is
> > sometimes defined as Mary's husband (though less often, probably, than
> > she is as "John's wife"). But once she is gone, her function for him
> > is over, linguistically speaking anyway.
> >
> > As of this morning (at the latest), this is no longer true. Here is
> > today's New York Times reporting on yesterday's election in Pakistan:
> >
> > Bhutto's Widower, Viewed as Ally by U.S., Wins the Pakistani
> > Presidency Handily
> >
> > ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of the
> > assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who has little
> > experience in governing, was elected president of Pakistan on Saturday
> > by a wide margin.
> >
> > We talk about "sexist language," but, as Lakoff's book made clear,
> > it's not really the language that is at fault. The sexist asymmetries
> > in our language merely reflect, and to some extent reinforce, the
> > sexism that is present in our society. (The words governor and
> > governess, for example, were once about as parallel semantically as
> > they are morphologically; that they have drifted apart is merely a
> > reflection of the fact that society generally assigned men to govern
> > states, and women to govern children. This pair, I think, is unlikely
> > to swing back into sync; Sarah Palin is not the governess of Alaska.)
> >
> > Zardari is described as "Bhutto's widower" for the same reason that so
> > many women over the centuries have been described as somebody's widow:
> > because the deceased spouse is more prominent in the speaker's mind
> > than the surviving one. All it took to make the construction in
> > Lakoff's (24b) grammatical was the remarkable career of Benazir
> > Bhutto. If we want to change the language, all we have to do is change
> > the world.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Mark Mandel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org