Free translations of genderless reference forms

[Martin Haspelmath]

Another option for contextless examples (in fact, the simplest option) 
is to use /she/ or /he/ randomly, in an unprincipled way.

Thereby one would lose information, but one loses information anyway in 
translation. I don't think that gender needs to have special status. 
Whenever a word has a broader meaning in the object language, one could 
give alternatives in the metalanguage (e.g. Russian /ruka bolit/ 'the 
hand/arm hurts', or German /auf die Uhr schauen/ 'look at the 
clock/watch'), but usually we don't do this.

Martin

On 08/03/2011 14:54, E. Bashir wrote:
> The problem seems to exist only in grammatical examples involving humans which are presented without surrounding context.  If the examples are taken from context, whether the pronoun refers to 'he' or 'she' will be clear, and should be maintained in the glosses, in my opinion.  With contextless examples involving humans, one could either (i) have a general note in the introductory materials to the grammar saying that the language in question does not mark gender on pronouns, and that a default pronoun 'he', for example, is being used throughout, but should be understood as generic third-person singular.  (ii) use the s/he and him/her strategy.
>
> eb
>
> --- On Tue, 3/8/11, Paul Hopper<hopper at CMU.EDU>  wrote:
>
>> From: Paul Hopper<hopper at CMU.EDU>
>> Subject: Re: Free translations of genderless reference forms
>> To: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
>> Date: Tuesday, March 8, 2011, 7:07 AM
>> There are several solutions used by
>> writers and various journals,
>> including the one Mike refers to, but the Tom's particular
>> problem is how
>> to gloss example sentences without making a point of the
>> gender. 'She/he',
>> 'him/her' seem to be unavoidable in this genre. Choosing
>> examples with
>> plural pronouns (they/them) obviates the problem, but isn't
>> always
>> possible. How do German linguists deal with this, when many
>> nouns are also
>> marked for gender?
>>
>> Paul Hopper
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, March 8, 2011 03:15, Mike Morgan wrote:
>>> Well, I have seen a few attempts at finding a solution
>> (meaning of course
>>>    there is no generally-agreed upon solution)...
>> one being using "he" in
>>> all examples in even chapters and "she" in odd
>> ones...
>>>
>>> mwm
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 9:21 PM, Thomas E. Payne<tpayne at uoregon.edu>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hello. Those of us who write in English often run
>> into the problem that
>>>>    English forces one to make a gender
>> distinction in reference forms
>>>> (e.g.,
>>>> pronouns) where the languages we work with make no
>> such distinction. I'm
>>>>    wondering whether there is a "standard" way
>> of dealing with this by
>>>> now. Does anyone know?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I'm talking about a huge number of references,
>> e.g., the free
>>>> translations of example sentences in a reference
>> grammar. It can get
>>>> very tedious to have to constantly use forms like
>> 'she/he', 'him/her'.
>>>> The free translations no
>>>> longer sound "free" at all.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for any thoughts.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Tom
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>> ===========================================================
>>> "I have become my own version of an optimist. If I
>> can't make it through
>>> one door, I'll go through another door - or I'll make
>> a door. Something
>>> terrific will come no matter how dark the present."
>> (R. Tagore)
>>
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at eva.mpg.de)
Max-Planck-Institut fuer evolutionaere Anthropologie, Deutscher Platz 6	
D-04103 Leipzig
Tel. (MPI) +49-341-3550 307, (priv.) +49-341-980 1616





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