[net.nlang] Obfuscatory Personal Pronoun / Re: Hes or Shes, or, Shes or Hes?

phipps@fortune.UUCP (Clay Phipps) (02/08/84)

It's been my observation that English is already informally developing 
a "genderless" singular personal pronoun.  
It is identical in form to the third person plural pronoun:
"they", "their" "them".

I think that the term "obfuscatory personal pronoun" is most accurate,
because it comes into use when a person is trying to *hide* the gender
of the antecedent, as in the following:

    I ran into an old friend of mine last night ...
    we had dinner at this really great little restaurant ...
    we went over to their place for a while ...

Despite the plural form,
in the context of the particular conversation (and from all other evidence),
the antecedent is clearly only one person.
There is sometimes a pause before selection of the obfuscatory pronoun
as the speaker ponders the impact of use of the more informative singular 
personal pronouns "he" or "she".  

This obfuscatory usage seems to coincide with rocky phases of relationships.
Ironically, sometimes the obfuscatory use creates suspicion 
where none had previously existed.

-- Clay Phipps

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