Question of gender and pets

[Walt Richmond]

I use one of Tolstoy's skazki called "Пожарные Собаки" to emphasize that
gender in Russian is a grammatical concept and talk about the common
designations собака and кошка (and mainly because it's a really fun
story). The dog's name is Боб, and whenever the subject is собака the
verbs and pronouns are feminine, and when the subject is Боб they're
masculine. I've found this close juxtaposition makes it clearer for the
students than just explaining it does.

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Michele A Berdy
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2013 9:01 AM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Question of gender and pets

I'm a bit late to the party... but here at the Moscow dog park, we call
our pooches собака regardless of gender. Вот моя собака!  Не видели мою
собаку? Ездил с собачкой. People say that about their male dogs as well as
female dogs. On the other hand, people use the gender-appropriate pronoun.
Она - брехливая. Ему уже 5 лет. Куда он пошел? Она подбирает всякие
гадости. Привет, маленький!

For a different reason, gender is very important -- probably 99 percent of
dog owners don't spay or neuter their dogs, so there are more "issues." We
always seem to be shouting at new people: У вас - кто? Девушка или
мальчик? (девушка, девочка, сука; кобель, мальчик, парень). I can rattle
off the names of gender of dozens of dogs -- it's the owners' names I
can't remember.



-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Emily Saunders
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2013 3:08 AM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Question of gender and pets

Thanks!  How about this hypothetical.  I own two dogs, both male.  If
asked:  У тебя есть собака?  Would you be specific and answer:  У меня два
кобеля (would you ever sаy пса?) Or would you say the generic у меня две
собаки.

Thanks.  It seems straightforward, but I get this question asked a lot
when students do introductory essays/blog posts about their family members
and pets.  I call it the Это моя собака.  Его зовут Кинг.   dilemma.

I'd love a variety of opinions about when you would and when you would not
specify the masculine gender of your pet.

Thanks!

Emily



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