[blml] he, he/she, or they for whom the bell tolls

[John (MadDog) Probst]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Geller" <geller at nifty.com>
To: "Bridge Laws Mailing List" <blml at amsterdamned.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 9:12 AM
Subject: [blml] he, he/she, or they for whom the bell tolls


> Dear BLMLers,
>
> The Introduction to the 2007 Laws contains the following sentence.
> **************************************************
> Finally, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise, the singular
> includes the plural and the masculine includes the feminine, and vice 
> versa.
> ****************************************************
> This sentence makes perfect sense as applied to the English
> language version of the laws.
>
> On the other hand, in the Japanese language there are no "masculine"
> or "feminine" forms used in the 2007 Laws (basically the "...if he 
> has...,"
> and so on, which are so common in English, are not used at all in ordinary
> Japanese).  Similarly, the Japanese language doesn't have "singular"
> or "plural" forms either.   That being the case, this sentence makes no
> sense whatsoever as applied to the Japanese edition of the 2007 Laws.
>
> How then should we treat this sentence?
> (A) Omit it from the Japanese laws altogether as it is irrelevant to the
> Japanese language?
> (B) Include a literal translation in the Japanese edition even though it
> makes no sense, because the RA in each NBO should translate everything
> exactly as it stands in the English edition?
> (C) Other (please specify)

Add a note "omitted: English grammatcal explanation not relevant to the 
Japanese language"
>
> Any opinions?   Also, any reports on how this sentence was handled in
> other countries?

in my local East london argot "imzer'nallnus'zimmerertu"

I use the appostrophe to indicate the glottal stop which can be pronounced 
as a very short neutral 'e'

rough de-elision "him means her and all and us means him or her too"

it is of course completely unambiguous, though translating the other laws to 
east London is going to be hard work. I should be able to get the whole 
oeuvre onto two sides of a sheet of A4 in 10 point.  It'll keep Nigel happy 
anyway :)

>
> -Bob
>
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------
> Robert (Bob) Geller,     Tokyo, Japan        geller at nifty.com
>
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