Klarinet Archive - Posting 000154.txt from 2008/07

From: X-CTN-5-MailScanner-jhf@-----.gov
Subj: Re: [kl]"man"
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:22:44 -0400


On Thu, 2008-07-31 at 14:00 -0400, Tom McKay wrote:
> Consider: "I met a craftsman yesterday, and she sold me a fine window."
> If the second part of that sentence seemed a little more surprising than it
> would have with 'he', then you are not taking 'craftsman' as a
> gender-neutral word.

Perhaps the surprise doesn't have much to do with the "man" suffix.
Similar surprises (for some people) can be constructed using, say,
"surgeon" or "priest". It's sad that people have those expectations,
but there you go.

When my sister and brother and I were kids, my sister was acknowledged
as the best fisherman of the three of us.

Cheers,
--Joe

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