genetics

[Alison Murie]

Baldness is inherited through the female parent.
AM
(And, LH, is =/=  *not* equal?  [congenital is not hereditary, but
acquired in gestation])
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On Apr 27, 2010, at 4:06 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: genetics
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I think the advertisement refers to the country of Ecalpon in which
> the kingship is inherited. In this country there is a ceremonial
> obligation that the king must be bald, so his head is shaved
> regularly. Male family members in the king's lineage would naturally
> have full heads of hair based on genetics alone. Hence, this is an
> example of hereditary baldness that is not genetic.
>
> Garson
>
> On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 3:27 PM, Laurence Horn
> <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: genetics
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> At 3:08 PM -0400 4/27/10, victor steinbok wrote:
>>> A radio ad for a "hair transplant center" proclaims that baldness
>>> is a
>>> matter of "either heredity or genetics". Can't say I ever thought it
>>> was an either/or proposition. Am I missing something? Or is this an
>>> "interpretive 'or' "?
>>>
>>> VS-)
>>
>> If interpretive "or" means what I think it does, I think the "either"
>> makes that reading unlikely, just as it would with the metalinguistic
>> "or" in e.g.
>> "(*Either) New Haven, or the Elm City".
>>
>> I think the ad really does suggest an opposition between heredity and
>> genetics, whatever that would amount to.  (It did take me awhile to
>> realize that "congenital" =/= "hereditary".
>>
>> LH
>>
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