chabot@miles.DEC (L S Chabot) (03/18/85)
> Throughout this document, the personal pronouns "they," "them," and > "their" are used to indicate third person *SINGULAR* when the referent > may be either female or male (a grammatical form practiced for > centuries by reputable writers such as Shakespeare, Shaw, and Scott > Fitzgerald). > Marcel Simon == < < ...is it really advancing < the cause of and of benefit to women to advocate greater vagueness in the < language? Frankly, I find nothing to celebrate here. < < I have no problem with a language evolving from the grass roots. New words < are constantly created to fill gaps in meaning. But this trend to a generic, < bland, boring, confusing, WRONG 'they' is not evolution but retrogression. What is this garbage, Marcel: how is using an AMBIGUOUS pronoun to describe an AMBIGUOUS situation "bland, boring, confusing, WRONG"? Right up there, it says "when the referent may be either female or male". Sound ambiguous to me. Maybe you should look in your own head for mush, Marcel. L S Chabot UUCP: ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot ARPA: ...chabot%amber.DEC@decwrl.ARPA USFail: DEC, LMO4/H4, 150 Locke Drive, Marlborough, MA 01752