Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2(pesnta.1.2) 9/5/84; site scc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!amd!pesnta!scc!steiny From: steiny@scc.UUCP (Don Steiny) Newsgroups: net.nlang,net.women Subject: Re: Gender-specific responses to s/he (their) Message-ID: <299@scc.UUCP> Date: Sun, 6-Jan-85 12:34:38 EST Article-I.D.: scc.299 Posted: Sun Jan 6 12:34:38 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 9-Jan-85 05:26:44 EST References: <218@cmu-cs-cad.ARPA> Organization: Personetics, Inc. - Santa Cruz, Calif. Lines: 48 Xref: watmath net.nlang:2349 net.women:4004 > > >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. > > No, no, no! Please! *cringe* > > On a more rational note... I think there are a lot of people out there who > have the same reaction to "their" that I do; I do a double-take because I > had thought the author was referring to a single person, and I sometimes will > look back to see if I've missed something. You do? Maybe if it is written down. People use "their" as a third person singualar indefinate pronoun in speech. It is like that old Latin rule about having the cases agree across a copular verb, "It is I" instead of "It's me." It is a rule from books for people that like to follow rules and has never been a rule of English. No one would ever say: Someone came early, didn't he or she? A person has many choices, doesn't he or she. In spoken English (English) we use "their", "they", and "them" if the word is referring to a third person singular *indefinate*. It sounds too specific to say "he", and even if there were to be a special word "he" that signified a sexless indefinate individual, "he or she" or "he and she" do not have the same interpretation. If someone uses the construction "someone ... he or she", it makes me think I missed something, the specific person that is being referred to. I had a professor who insisted that it was wrong and confusing to use "their" as an third singular pronoun, yet he used it himself in his speech. He was a linguistics professor and sould have known better. People have a variety of different strategies for reading, and that probably explains why it confuses people when it is written down and not when it is spoken. -- scc!steiny Don Steiny - Personetics @ (408) 425-0382 109 Torrey Pine Terr. Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060 ihnp4!pesnta -\ fortune!idsvax -> scc!steiny ucbvax!twg -/