"Des Higgins" wrote in message
...
On Jun 8, 12:13 pm, johannes wrote:
Des Higgins wrote:
On Jun 8, 9:35 am, johannes wrote:
This may be more appropriate for the English language section, but
perhaps
gardeners also have animals. Such animal lovers will affectionately
refer
to their pets as a he or she. However, I have noticed that this use of
language
has increasingly become standard English, e.g. BBC news. I recently
saw a BBC
news story where a beetle was referred to as "he". How far down this
road is
this going to go? What about fleas, bacteria etc. Oddly enough, a
fetus is
referred to is "it".
Beetles do have clear gender biologically and in some cases the
genders are clearly different looking. In that case, it is possible
that the gender of the beetle was clear and then the use of "he" would
be apropriate. For example, male stag beetles have huge "antlers".
If the gender was not clear, however, then it sounds silly.
But some plants also have clear biologically. I am not clever, just looked
it
up in wiki:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_sexuality
"Androecious - plants producing male flowers only, produce pollen but no
seeds, the
male plants of a Dioecious species."
"Gynoecious - plants producing female flowers only, produces seeds but no
pollen,
the female of a Dioecious species. In some plant species or populations
all
individuals are gynoecious with non sexual reproduction used to produce
the next
generation."- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
ok, for common usage, referring to insects (or spiders) as "he" or
"Lshe" is unusual but not unheard of. Usually it would be "it".
Referring to mammals as "he" or "she" would be quite common if you
knew the gender (especially for pets). Referring to plants by gender
would be rare and quaint and just for special effect; normally it
would be "it". Most people would not have heard of dioecy or would not
realise that male and female plants existed and would not refer to
such plants by gender.
I keep Indian stick insects, and they are all "she" for there is no male
among them. I've had them for about 15 years and they all produce eggs
that look like little barrels with corks in them. There are no males, males
appear to be redundant in this insect.
someone