Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site mtxinu.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!unisoft!mtxinu!ed From: ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould) Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Re: 'they' as third person singular indefinate sex pronoun Message-ID: <245@mtxinu.UUCP> Date: Sat, 12-Jan-85 18:50:45 EST Article-I.D.: mtxinu.245 Posted: Sat Jan 12 18:50:45 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 14-Jan-85 04:22:31 EST References: <488@mhuxt.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: mt Xinu, Berkeley, CA Lines: 33 > The results > were less than satisfying. This is the phrase I ended up with: > "is anonymous; if they finds out where I live, will > they come bomb my house?" In colloquial use, I would phrase this "incorrectly" as "... if they find out ...", mixing singular and plural. In many cases, the referant of the pronoun *isn't* specifically singular, in which case even the "they" is plural. In written work, I typically avoid the singular/plural problem by writing in plural whenever possible - which turns out to be most of the time. This leads me to another point of question, on which I'm not sure I like the answer I seem to find. If the referent of the pronoun is a known person (i.e., their gender is known) what is the correct form? Some would argue that either "he" or "she" should be used as appropriate. I'm not so sure, since the whole point of the "their" discussion is to avoid discrimination (or, really, to avoid the furtherance of a discriminatory system since in the best of all possible worlds it might be reasonable to define one pronoun [e.g., "she"] to mean both genders). If I were to use "he" referring to a man, who is otherwise unidentified - that is the context does not specify that there is a particular individual - then there is confusion as to whether the "he" is male or neuter. What do you all think about this one? (By the way, was the use of "their" above ["... their gender is known ..."] uncomfortable to people who prefer "he"? That context seems particularly innoucous to me. Maybe I'm just used to it [which is what I want].) -- Ed Gould mt Xinu, 739 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA 94710 USA {ucbvax,decvax}!mtxinu!ed +1 415 644 0146