Gerhard,
The gender assignment of "Der Bachfisch" is very easy to explain - although
I'll need help with the metaphor.
This is an illustration of another rule which is that the gender of the last
component determines the gender of the composite word. Since the last
component is "Fisch" and "Fisch" is masculine, "Bachfisch" is masculine.
"Bach" is "brook" or "beck". But why a teenage girl should have anything to
do with, for example, Schubart's[1] famous fish "Die Forelle" ("In einem
Bächlein helle" - "In a bright little brook"), I'll have to leave someone
else to explain.
[1] Yes, Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart (1739-1791) , was responsible
for the words while Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828) was responsible for
setting the words to music and, like any programmer who has written
something useful, he reused it in another context.
Chris Mason
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gerhard Postpischil" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, 23 June, 2006 7:46 PM
Subject: Re: Mainframe Limericks...
Chris Mason wrote:
> I expect you have in mind "Mädchen" and "Fräulein". I put this down to
> following the rules wherever they take you - in a manner not dissimilar to
> the "must not" problem I covered yesterday in IBMTCP-L. The suffixes
"-chen"
> and "-lein" - or simply "-l" as in "stübl" - require the neuter gender,
> "das", which overrides any mere biological assignment of gender. <g>
But how do you explain "der Backfisch" for a female teenager?
Gerhard Postpischil
Bradford, VT
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