Are you able to provide an example as to how greater complexity makes it easier
Comment on Why do some languages use gendered nouns?
6mementomori@lemmy.world 10 months ago
oftentimes grammatical gender actually makes the language easier, paradoxically, and I’m sure there’s a really good explanation out there
SquiffSquiff@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Hyperreality@kbin.social 10 months ago
Eg. you hear a word that sounds like another word, and can tell it's not that other word, because the other word has a different gender.
Moghul@lemmy.world 10 months ago
This is an off the cuff example. Yes you can rephrase to get around this. It’s just an example.
The chair and the table don’t go together because it’s made of wood. The chair and the table don’t go together because it(female)'s made of wood.
Since you ‘know’ tables get female articles and such, you know the speaker is talking about the table and not the chair.
Lath@kbin.social 10 months ago
German.
Chozo@kbin.social 10 months ago
Gerwoman.
cali_ash@lemmy.wtf 10 months ago
How do they make things easier? (Asking as a German).
Lath@kbin.social 10 months ago
It's a mouthful, but concise. (Telling as a non-german).
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Deutsch ist total einfach. Weiß doch jeder.
6mementomori@lemmy.world 10 months ago
try making a really simple language, and figure out that it gets really difficult to speak because you start confusing shit. excessive complexity isn’t good either but some complexity is needed, and gender gives some of that. I have nothing to back this up though
PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 10 months ago
Supposedly it helps understanding what would otherwise be considered vague statements in an ungendered language, and with being able to understand what’s being said even in a loud environment.
Personally I think 90% of the drama around it comes from the bad decision of calling it gender instead of something else, because now english media has put the concept on blast for the silliness of assuming the moon has a penis and the sun has a vagina, when the purpose it’s supposed to serve doesn’t actually have anything to do with clarifying that specifically as much as clarifying which of two or more similar sounding words that sound like “sun” or “moon” you’re trying to actually refer to.
Maybe clarifier classes? Call it CC (X) where X is the indicator that tells you which class it’s in in that specific language. So CC(O) for masculines in Spanish, or CC(T) for feminines in Arabic
quilan@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I don’t have the source with me, but I recall a paper about listening to various languages unser different signal/ noise thresholds. If I recall correctly, languages like German that have multiple declensions were about to better able to parse noisy samples because of the redundant information. Sorry for not having the source off hand though.