[Lexicog] "Dogs" cross-culturally (was: circular definitions)

[Translation MALI]

Bill,

To which dogs is language going, the male or the female ones?
English is particularly rich with expressions using "dog"
to refer to a person or something: top dog, underdog, she is
a dog (= she is ugly), it's a real dog (= it is of poor quality).

I wonder how this works in other languages. "To go to the dogs"
has a direct equivalent in German "vor die Hunde gehen". I am
sure that is rare. To refer to someone as "dog" is almost
universally an insult (usually with a qualifier: mean or dirty dog).
In Bavaria and Austria it can be high compliment (without the
qualifier, of course) to someone who is very intelligent.

Fritz Goerling


MIke's comment that a male whale is not a "bull" for some
segment of the English-speaking population reminds me
that I fear that I am the only person left who considers airplanes
to have "port" and "starboard" sides rather than "left" and "right".
The language is really going to the dogs. :)
--
Bill Poser, Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wjposer/ billposer at alum.mit.edu







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