debray@sbcs.UUCP (Saumya Debray) (04/30/85)
In a previous article, I'd said that a strong case could be made for
inductive generalization as the reason for particular images being
associated with particular words. The examples I gave included "fireman"
(male), "cheerleader" (female) and "chef" (male). I then argued that it
wasn't clear what the causal relationships between the words and the
associated images were.
After thinking about this some more, though, I'm no longer convinced that
this argument is as applicable to the male image associated with "he" as
I'd thought it was. Given the English I've learned and used these last
twentyfive years, I'll probably still be damned uncomfortable with
singular "they"s and "heesh"s and such (the singular "they" I might learn
to live with, the "heesh" I probably won't!), but I do believe now of the
genuine need for something over there.
Maybe I'll just use "one". :-)
--
Saumya Debray
SUNY at Stony Brook
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