Taxacom: Gender agreement is easy - beer example

[Michael A. Ivie]

I have renamed this so that I am not replying to any specific person's 
comment and cut off the tail.

Regarding gender agreement.  For those that think that learning a few 
simple rules and then just knowing what the answer is, let's look at a 
real world example we can all appreciate - from Beer. Everyone who has 
taken a few introduction to Spanish classes, or who grew up with Spanish 
speakers, or has a working grasp of Spanish that works for travel,  but 
did not get a degree in Spanish Language, knows the simple rules of 
gender agreement in Spanish. You can follow it because it sounds right, 
and "feels" right.

However, there is an excellent (my opinion) Mexican beer named Negra 
Modelo.  Clearly, Modelo ends in an "o" and is masculine, so the 
modifier must conform and also end in an "o."  So this name is wrong, 
and many many people say "Negro Modelo" or "Negra Modela" as a reflexive 
conformity to gender agreement (similar to correcting a species name 
with the "wrong" ending).  Why would a company screw this up like this?

Well, in an example just like what happens with scientific names, deeper 
knowledge of a language is needed than having a basic working knowledge 
of a language in order to get the details correct.  "Modelo," meaning 
"style or fashion" is a Greek borrow-word taken into Spanish as a direct 
form.  In Greek that last "o" is feminine (in this case), so it retains 
its feminine form in Spanish and modifiers conform by ending in an "a."  
How the ### are you supposed to just know that?  Same happens with "El 
Drama."

Gender agreement that is absolutely and always correct is not something 
perfectly easy to a non-fluent speaker - of any language.

Keep it or get rid of it, but don't call it easy and simple.

Mike

-- 
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Michael A. Ivie, Ph.D., F.R.E.S.

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