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From: nap@druxo.UUCP (Parsons)
Newsgroups: net.nlang,net.women
Subject: Re: Gender-Specific Pronouns
Message-ID: <775@druxo.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 11-Jan-85 10:05:57 EST
Article-I.D.: druxo.775
Posted: Fri Jan 11 10:05:57 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Jan-85 05:48:30 EST
References: <353@cadovax.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver
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Xref: watmath net.nlang:2371 net.women:4038

>>From sunny@sun.uucp (Sunny Kirsten) <1914@sun.uucp>

>> Try using "their" whether referring to one generic person or many persons:
>> it's easier to read than he/she or his/her, and is gender non-specific.
>> 				Sunny

>It's also grammatically incorrect and awkward.  To me, it's as bad as
>using "Aren't I?" instead of "Am I not?"

>My solution is to avoid using such constructs.

>-- 

>Bob Kaplan	{ucbvax,ihnp4,decvax}!trwrb!cadovax!bob

Of course, *proper* grammar is of much greater importance than the
deleterious effect of sexist language on half of humanity! :-)

Is the proper role of grammarians to define what *proper* usage is or to
record what common usage is?  Probably some of both.  But I, for one, have
no intention of allowing grammarians to assume almighty powers and dictate
that I must use language that is damaging to me and my sisters (and
ultimately to my brothers, too).

Besides, the singular *they* has a lot of precedence is scholarly writing
as well as common usage by public figures:

       Shakespeare: Everyone to rest themselves.

              Shaw: It's enough to drive anyone out of their sense.

  Scott Fitzgerald: Nobody like a mind quicker than their own.

Dr. Mary Celderone: Everybody must develop their own standards of
                    sexual morality.

   The Phone Store: Give someone a phone of their own.

 Lord Chesterfield: If a person is born of a gloomy temper...they
		    cannot help it.

     J. F. Kennedy: If that person gets sick...they are in the hospital...

      Senator Hart: ...the person who goes for food stamps does it
		    because they are poor.

Besides, this kind of change is not new to our language.  *Ye* and *you*
were once plural pronouns only, the singular being *thou* and *thee*.  Now
*you* is both singular and plural.  I imagine a lot of people complained
back then about the new usage being grammatically incorrect and awkward.
(Or did they not have grammarians dictating to them then?)

As Casey Miller and Kate Swift state in their book *Words and Women,*:
*They* as a singular illustrates once again that in spite of studied
efforts to hold it back, our remarkably sensitive tongue is capable of
responding to its speakers' longing for equality.

By the way, I used the asterisk in place of quotation marks in some places
in this article and used nothing where there properly should have been
quotation marks in other places because I've seen others do it and cannot
recall seeing quotation marks on the net.  Do quotation marks create
problems when used in text on the net or what?  Can I safely use them in
the future?

Nancy Parsons
(Previously grammatically scrupulous, but no longer idolizing grammar)
AT&T ISL
Denver, CO
druxo!nap