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From: kriha_p@actrix.gen.nz (Paul J. Kriha)
Subject: Re: fe/male speech in English??
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Date: Thu, 9 Mar 1995 06:25:00 GMT
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In article <3jbok9$7s7@mark.ucdavis.edu>,
   ez012445@dale.ucdavis.edu (Adam Greene) wrote:
>Joseph C Fineman (jcf@world.std.com) wrote:
>: One m-f difference in English that is part of folklore (jokes on the
>: radio, etc.) is that women know more color words than men.  I, for
>: example, do not know what mauve & puce mean.  But I suspect that this
>: difference, even if real, is confined to some classes.
>: -- 
>:         Joe Fineman             jcf@world.std.com
>:         239 Clinton Road        (617) 731-9190
>:         Brookline, MA 02146
>
>I took a course called Language, Gender, and Society, which dealt with 
>gender-based differences in communication. Though the focus was on 
>English, it also looked at many other languages and cultures. Anyway, I 
>found it interesting that on the day the professor was lecturing on 
>vocabulary differences, she referred to the "salmon" hand-out. To most 
>men, it would've no doubt been "orange". Even if men know what the color 
>terms mean, they are less apt to use them. Some of this may stem from 
                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>clothing/fashion...? That's where I notice the greatest number of these 
>terms popping up.

I don't think it is a matter of aptness. IMO men shy away from colour
names they regard as poncy.  They don't care to be so precise.
The colour of the car I used to drive was officially described as
'sable'.  In casual conversation I would feel unconfortable to use
that word and usually used the word 'brown'. Only when it was
important to specify exactly what tone of brown it was I would
qualify it as 'sable brown'.

[...]

Paul JK
