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Why do some languages use gendered nouns?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2024
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Zehzins example is also true for objects. "After the cat jumped on the table with the glass and the bowl it pushed it down." Did the cat push down the glass or the bowl? In german for example it's "Nachdem die Katze auf den Tisch mit dem Glas und der Schüssel gesprungen ist, hat sie sie heruntergestoßen." (In this case the bowl) or "Nachdem die Katze auf den Tisch mit dem Glas und der Schüssel gesprungen ist, hat sie es heruntergestoßen." (In this case the glass).
Your cat example works because it shows an example that is ambiguous in English but not in German. Zezhin's example was showing something that wasn't ambiguous in English, a language with no noun class distinctions outside of referring to things by their actual gender, so there's no benefit to having more general noun classes in that example
He was showing how gendered words can resolve ambiguity in an example were this also applies in english, so that you can extrapolate to situations like the one I (or the other replies) showed.