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From: jefff@cadovax.UUCP (Jeffery H. Fields)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.nlang
Subject: Genderless Pronouns
Message-ID: <354@cadovax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 8-Jan-85 17:56:19 EST
Article-I.D.: cadovax.354
Posted: Tue Jan  8 17:56:19 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Jan-85 01:23:01 EST
Organization: Contel Cado, Torrance, CA
Lines: 20
Xref: watmath net.women:4023 net.nlang:2365





     The suggestion of  using  genderless  pronouns  like  "they"  and
"their"  instead  of  "he/she" and "they/their" is lauded by some as a
positive social  action  to  eliminate  sexism.   Some  linguists  and
English  purists  point  to  the  grammatical  error of using a plural
pronoun for a singular antecedent in doing so.
     There is a grammatical solution to  this  dilemma  that  has  not
appeared  on the net.  This solution would involve using "one" and the
possessive "one's" for a singular  antecedent  and  using  "they"  and
"their" for plural antecedents.

-- 

				Jeff Fields
				{ucbvax,ihnp4,decvax}!trwrb!cadovax!jefff

Pax Vobiscum.