Since almost all inanimate objects are considered neutral (unusually), rather than masculine or feminine, a speaker of English can demonstrate sentimental attachment to a well-loved object by giving it a grammatical gender it would otherwise not have had – referring to a boat with the pronoun ‘she’ being the classic example.

It hadn’t occurred to me that the stronger presence of grammatical gender in other languages actually makes this a rather unusual feature of English.

Which reminds me: I’m sick of the phrase “I take full responsibility.” In days gone by that meant accepting blame and punishment. These days it seems to mean little more than, “I wish you would accept the matter as closed. I do.”

It seems so natural to us to divide words and ideas with white space, that it seems incredible that anyone ever did anything else. I wonder if the obsolescence of typographical marks is related to the cost of writing materials?

Now, as any fule kno, French women enjoy two modes of address. It seems that feminism has just discovered or rediscovered the French language, and is attempting to do something about it. Interestingly, as that post describes, the French feminist does not seem to wish to create a new word – a French translation of the English “Ms” – but rather to make “Madame” the standard mode of address for all women.

Whereas the English debate, at a linguistic level at any rate, has generally been about giving women additional choice, this current French debate is far more obviously about removing individual choice in the name of greater collective freedom. On the wisdom, aesthetics, benefits or costs of such a choice I make no comment; in the words of the song:

Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks’.

I must admit that I hadn’t thought that the Madam/mademoiselle distinction was in fact as closely tied to marriage as that post suggests, but perhaps someone more familiar with French usage or usages will enlighten me.