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Subject:Re: Japanese pronouns From:Fenella Saunders <fjsdjrmc -at- ACPUB -dot- DUKE -dot- EDU> Date:Thu, 1 Dec 1994 21:06:01 -0500
On Thu, 1 Dec 1994, Karen Kay wrote:
> reasons, though.:) Japanese doesn't have gender for nouns, but there
> is *NO gender-neutral* third-person sg. pronoun. There are pronouns
> for he 'kare' and she 'kanojo'. The fact is that most Japanese
> speech/writing is gender-neutral because pronouns are used less
> frequently.
This isn't entirely correct. There is a pronoun 'anata' that means
'you'. It's pretty formal, and can be used towards anyone, i believe.
However, it is used extremely rarely, and in most cases only by women
towards their husbands, so has come to have that connotation.
