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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!teddy!mlf
From: mlf@teddy.UUCP (Matt L. Fichtenbaum)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: "Their" as a substitute for his/her
Message-ID: <1108@teddy.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 7-Jan-85 09:31:07 EST
Article-I.D.: teddy.1108
Posted: Mon Jan  7 09:31:07 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Jan-85 02:29:03 EST
References: <1315@dciem.UUCP> <643@bunker.UUCP> <1914@sun.uucp> <401@hou2e.UUCP>
Reply-To: mlf@teddy.UUCP (Matt L. Fichtenbaum)
Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass.
Lines: 26
Summary: 

...

   Aw, people...

There have been a couple of notes proposing or condoning "their" as
a singular possessive, to eliminate the gender inherent in "his" or "her."
I'd like to vote for the other side...

	"Their" is _plural_!

and sentences such as "everyone should sign their name" are _wrong_.

   If you don't believe that, then try using "they" instead of "he" or "she:"

	"Everyone should sit down when they arrives."

since "arrives" has a singular subject (he/she, from "everyone").

   Let's keep "they, them, their" for plurals and not corrupt them while
attempting to fix he/she!

-- 

					Matt Fichtenbaum
					"Our job is to rescue fires,
					not put out your cat."