Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uiuccsb!grass
From: grass@uiuccsb.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Replacement for he/she - (nf)
Message-ID: <5687@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 16-Feb-84 22:33:36 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.5687
Posted: Thu Feb 16 22:33:36 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Feb-84 02:52:02 EST
Lines: 21

#R:rayssd:-36700:uiuccsb:10500018:000:971
uiuccsb!grass    Feb 16 10:31:00 1984


>From what I can tell from a semester and a half of Japanese, it has
virtually no pronouns at all.  There are several meaning "I" and "we"
(with or without gender marking, with or without formalness)
but I have asked and been told that the equivalents of "he, she, it,
they" exist but are virtually never used.  When you speak of a third
person, you use their name or names with a title (no gender clue
here, but it does carry social rank).  Otherwise, the subject of
sentences is supposed to be understood from context.  This does
not seem to create any problems.

Japanese doesn't have gender distinctions in noun forms, or in
any of the various forms of verbs and adjectives.  However, 
it is easy to tell from word choice and GRAMMAR (!) whether
a man or a woman is writing/speaking.  I am told that the
distinction is much less marked for younger women, especially
educated ones.  The language doesn't change to reflect
whether a man or woman is being talked about.