[Lexicog] Re: lexical entries as singulars or plurals

[Robert Hedinger]

So the German should be "Man ist was man isst." (note the different verbs)

Robert
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Fritz Goerling 
  To: 'Fritz Goerling' ; lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2005 9:17 PM
  Subject: RE: [Lexicog] Re: lexical entries as singulars or plurals


  Sorry, I meant "One is what one eats"and "Man is what he eats."

  FG




      David,

      "Man" in the saying "Man isst was man isst" is only written in capitals because it
      begins the sentence. Otherwise all nouns are capitalized in German. However, the "Man"
      in the saying "Man isst was man isst" has nothing to do with "Mann" (= man; the male)
      It corresponds to the impersonal "on" in  French and "one" in English. So the translation 
      of the German saying into English is "One eats what one eats" or in gender-noninclusive 
      language "Man eats what he eats."
      Fritz 
       

       
      Fritz --

      I don't know German, but I remember a German saying, something like "Man ist 
      was man isst." (Please forgive and correct spelling mistakes.) Is this "man" 
      unrelated to what you were talking about?

      -- David Frank


      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: <billposer at alum.mit.edu>
      To: <lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>
      Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2005 10:29 AM
      Subject: RE: [Lexicog] Re: lexical entries as singulars or plurals


      Granting the availability of mensch as a gender-neutral term,
      am I wrong in thinking that, in the indefinite usage, mann and
      leute are a singular/plural pair? I'm thing of usages like:

      Was mann sagt ...  "What a person/one says..."
      Was leute sagen .. "What people say..." 



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