Re: Abolish antisexism rules! Long live the equivalence of people!
"Buddha M.D. Buck" wrote:
>There are two slightly different circumstances when an English speaker
>might want to use a genderless singular personal pronoun:
>
>1. When they are referring to a singular member of a group of unknown
>gender, such as what I'm doing in this sentence -- I know that any
>particular English speaker can be male or female, so specifying "he" or
>"she" implies a gender that isn't really there. This is the case that
>people mean when they say "'He' is the only pronoun proper to use for a
>general reference." However, historically, "they" has long been used
>in that manner as well.
>
>2. When they are referring to a particular person who's gender is
>unknown. In this case, "he" or "she" would not be a general usage, but
>would rather be a specific usage which may be incorrect. "I got a
>visit from the CEO today", "Oh, what did he want", "_She_ wanted to
>complement my use of non-sexist language in our documentation." Here,
>English has a very long tradition of using "they". "Someone left their
>coat behind". "I don't know who it was, but they won't get away".
>
>So I would recommend to use "they", if you need to use a genderless
>singlular personal pronoun. There is a web page which I will try to
>find again, listing uses of singluar "they" throughout lots of classic
>English literature, including Shakespeare and Jane Austin.
I admit that the usage is quite common; however, my early training in Latin
makes me hostile to the gross solecism of a plural pronoun trying to
convey a singular meaning. Ian Jackson has done this in the constitution;
it grates, like chalk squeaking on a blackboard!
Sir Ernest Gowers' "Complete Plain Words", 2nd ed, says: "The official
writer will be wise for the present to use ["he or she" or "he"] and not
to be tempted by the greater convenience of ["they"], though necessity
may eventually force it into the category of accepted idiom."
The examples given of the use of "they" for the singular are generally
where the pronoun refers to a word like "somebody", meaning one or more
members of a class. Its use is more acceptable in speech than in
written English.
--
Oliver Elphick Oliver.Elphick@lfix.co.uk
Isle of Wight http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver
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"It is better to trust in the LORD than to put
confidence in man." Psalms 118:8
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