Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site druxo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!drutx!druxo!nap 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 Lines: 69 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