Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihuxa.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!ihuxa!andyr From: andyr@ihuxa.UUCP (Ronald R. Anderson) Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Re: Re: "Their" as a substitute for his/her Message-ID: <714@ihuxa.UUCP> Date: Wed, 9-Jan-85 13:42:04 EST Article-I.D.: ihuxa.714 Posted: Wed Jan 9 13:42:04 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 11-Jan-85 08:02:58 EST References: <1315@dciem.UUCP> <643@bunker.UUCP> <1914@sun.uucp> <401@hou2e.UUCP> <1108@teddy.UUCP> <19800@arizona.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 24 In response to: > gary@arizona.UUCP (Gary Marc Levin) > As for agreement of number, ``you'' takes a plural verb even when it > is used in its singular sense. [Ex: You are beating a dead horse.] This seems to be an anomaly of the language. Some languages (French and Russian that I know of) have different verb forms for the singular and plural second person. (Their second person pronouns also differentiate singular and plural.) Norwegian, however, uses the same form of the verb regardless of person or number. Back to the main topic: I personally find it difficult to read "s/he" (perhaps my social conditioning?). I do prefer consistency both in speech and writing when referring to an individual human being (i.e. consistently "he" or "she" or "one" or "they"). Note that I said PREFER. I can easily adapt. Discussion on this topic seems to get heated at times; please direct any flames to /dev/null. -- -- Ronald R. Anderson AT&T Bell Laboratories Naperville, Illinois [...ihnp4!]ihuxa!andyr