Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site sphinx.UChicago.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!whuxl!houxm!ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!mmar From: mmar@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Mitchell Marks) Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Re: Pronouns devoid of gender connotations Message-ID: <760@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> Date: Tue, 2-Jul-85 00:00:31 EDT Article-I.D.: sphinx.760 Posted: Tue Jul 2 00:00:31 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 3-Jul-85 07:41:26 EDT References: <2718@decwrl.UUCP> <337@spar.UUCP> <6473@boring.UUCP>, <371@spar.UUCP> Organization: U Chicago -- Linguistics Dept Lines: 39 From: michael@spar.UUCP (Not Bill Joy) Message-ID: <371@spar.UUCP> Date: Fri, 28-Jun-85 04:11:51 CDT > Somebody else: We have hired a new programmer. > Me: What day do they start? And do they know C? > > Incorrect? Yes. But it is handy, understandable, and natural, especially > to those who have not allowed themselves to be brainwashed by so many > grammar texts. ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ... > No doubt, you can show me some way to reword `my' response. And that > would miss the point. English already has a sex-ambiguous third person > anaphoric pronoun. It has been in colloquial use for a long time -- in > spite of the condemnation of grammarians. ^^^^^^^^^^^^ > -michael michael -- {I'm quite in agreement with you about 'they', and have posted to that effect} But, wait a minute! Hold my horses! There are plenty of us who consider ourselves grammarians, and use grammar texts, without being prescriptive / normative grammarians in most ways. Don't tar with such a wide brush. Not that I take the absolutist attitude about this that was common in linguistics not too long ago. It's reasonable to take an interest in the direction the language develops, and to like some changes and dislike others. What's added to that from the descriptive perspective (which apparently you share) is just that it's not a moral issue, and language change is not a matter of `degeneration'. -- -- Mitch Marks @ UChicago ...ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!mmar