/he/ vs. /they/ (was Re: At peace with Debian)

["Eric G. Miller" <egm2@jps.net>]

On Sun, Jul 14, 2002 at 10:58:20PM -0500, Gary Turner wrote:
> On Sun, 14 Jul 2002 19:01:30 -0700, Eric G. Miller wrote:
> 
> >On Sun, Jul 14, 2002 at 05:24:39PM -0700, David Wright wrote:
> 
> >> Guess what: no matter how much you agonized over it when you were young 
> >> first discovered feminism, you can't eliminate the "generic masculine" 
> >> construction in English without distracting your reader or being wrong.
> >
> >BTW, I never "agonized" over the matter and I knew about feminism well
> >before I ever started thinking about non-sexist writing.  So, you can
> >leave your condescending tone at the door.
> 
> I fail to see any sign of condescension there. 

Perhaps I read something that wasn't there; such is the nature of
language.  But, connect "agonized" + "young" + "feminism" = "wrong" and
you might see some condescension.  Add to it the presumption about how I
might have come to think eliminating "he" as a generic pronoun is a good
thing, and that the preceding message cited a reference supporting the
use of "they" as singular, and you might see how I read it as
condescending. 

I followed up with a post citing the _The Oxford Companion to the
English Language_, which also supports that the use of "they" in a
singular context has its roots in the 16th century.  Perhaps such a
reference can't be so easily discounted compared to a lesser known
"feminist" work without "Oxford" in the name?

In the end, there are many ways to skin a cat, but writers need to be
aware of how words, even in subtle contexts, can reinforce stereotypes
and otherwise marginalize readers (or other groups of people).  The
Oxford Companion listed nine methods (not counting invented words like
"thon", "per", "na" or "hir") to deal with the generic singular personal
pronoun "problem".  The _Handbook of Nonsexist Writing_ spends about 15
pages on the issue, with singular "they" being one of several approaches
that are compared.  The final paragraph of that chapter reads:

    Clearly, the need inspires a quest that will not die, and proposals
    for new pronouns can be expected to keep popping up for years.
    Whether or not a neologism ever takes hold, the continued and
    increased use of singular /they/ in writing as well as speech -- and
    the restitution of the status it enjoyed before grammarians
    arbitrarily proscribed it -- now seems inevitable.

       _Handbook of Nonsexist Writing_, 2nd Ed.  1988.  Casey Miller and
           Kate Swift.  Harper and Row, New York. (pg. 58)


Now, what was the question about Debian? ;-)

-- 
Eric G. Miller <egm2@jps.net>


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