Sunday, August 17, 2008

English Language

This morning I was assailed by a deep linguistic question: is there any Daughter of a Bitch? Thinking closely on the matter, it seems odd that one can use the offensive term Son of a Bitch, SOB and whatnot, but it seems English-speaking women are impervious to this offensive term. Can a woman be a son of a bitch? I mean, it would be linguistically wrong, as this noun should agree with the gender of the target, is it not?

The story behind today's epiphany is more or less the following. As I came back from the supermarket this morning, I was confronted with a local English girl, not one of the types who speak the Queen's English, mind you, but rather the one that would be called a Chav around these parts. This girl was rather unpleasant, and sported a T-Shirt with the message "If you think I'm a bitch, you should meet my mother". The shirt immediately made me think, is she a bitch, or a ... a ... a what?

Now, to further this discussion, I urge any reader to provide some insight to me.

6 comments:

Anayhale said...

Creo que en español si existe "hija de perra" pero no se si sea aplicado a otras lenguas... en portugues?

Felipe said...

Em portugues existe filho e filha da puta, acreditamos em igualdade entre os sexos.

Mai said...

E depois dizem que ingles nao eh uma lingua limitada..
pergunta pro mike!!

Mai said...

segundo uma amiga, prof. de ingles, the 'daughter of a bitch' is a bitch right? entao pra mulher se diz somente bitch mesmo! oq nao vale para o homem..
ate' que faz sentido..

Felipe said...

Isto só vale se estivermos falando no sentido animal da coisa, no sentido humano, se a mãe é uma vadia, não necessariamente a filha também vai ser (apesar de ser provável :-))

Mai said...

hum... é verdade.. o mistério continua!