sam (04/15/83)
I agree that the genderless pronoun is long overdue. I'm partial to the pronoun used j the pronoun used in Joanna Russ' novel The Female Man - "per". "Per" was used as the third person singular for all cases. It didn't take long to get used to, and I found myself using it in conversation, much to the confusion of my friends and famliy.
ajk (05/09/83)
Relay-Version:version B 3/9/83; site harpo.UUCP
Message-ID:<130@hpdb.UUCP>
Date:Mon, 9-May-83 12:35:19 EDT
My wife and I have run into some confusion in this area
with regard to our first child, which we are expecting in a
few months. We've had some confusion with how to refer to
the fetus. He, she, it, all seem inappropriate. 'He or
she' is just too unwieldy. A friend of ours referred to his
unborn child as 'shim', a contraction of 'she' and 'him'.
We felt that to be a bit pretentious and thought of the con-
traction of 'she' and 'it' as a possibility. I don't think
our kid will appreciate learning about this nickname when
s/he is ten years old, though, so we decided to 'she/it'can
this idea.
Any suggestions on this? Ziggy Zygote? Cletus the
Fetus? Nah . . .
Allan Kuchinsky - Hewlett Packard Design Aidsbentson (05/12/83)
ihuxn!ewp has trouble with the following:
A bunch of us were trying to decide where to go for lunch.
One guy said, "I've got a taste for pizza," but then one
woman said, "Anything but pizza. I hate pizza."
because '"Woman" sounds much more formal than "guy"'. This may
be so, but I have an additional problem with the example. How many
have noticed that in some regions that "guy" need not refer to
the male gender? I have seen "guys" refer to just a group of people,
and (less often so) "guys" refer to a group of females.
In any event, since the sex of the actors in the above example
seem to be of no significance, I would suggest the following:
A bunch of us were trying to decide where to go for lunch.
One said, "I've got a taste for pizza", but then another
said, "Anything but pizza. I hate pizza."
Randy Bentson
Colo State U - Comp Sci
csu-cs!bentson
303/491-7016firby (05/13/83)
One of my old profs. called his baby-to-be "Badger", or "the Badger".
Then again, he was from Britain, too.
joannejefff@cadovax.UUCP (Jeffery H. Fields) (01/09/85)
The suggestion of using genderless pronouns like "they" and
"their" instead of "he/she" and "they/their" is lauded by some as a
positive social action to eliminate sexism. Some linguists and
English purists point to the grammatical error of using a plural
pronoun for a singular antecedent in doing so.
There is a grammatical solution to this dilemma that has not
appeared on the net. This solution would involve using "one" and the
possessive "one's" for a singular antecedent and using "they" and
"their" for plural antecedents.
--
Jeff Fields
{ucbvax,ihnp4,decvax}!trwrb!cadovax!jefff
Pax Vobiscum.features@ihuxf.UUCP (M.A. Zeszutko) (01/11/85)
From: jefff@cadovax.UUCP (Jeffery H. Fields) > The suggestion of using genderless pronouns like "they" and >"their" instead of "he/she" and "they/their" is lauded by some as a >positive social action to eliminate sexism. Some linguists and >English purists point to the grammatical error of using a plural >pronoun for a singular antecedent in doing so. > There is a grammatical solution to this dilemma that has not >appeared on the net. This solution would involve using "one" and the >possessive "one's" for a singular antecedent and using "they" and >"their" for plural antecedents. While the use of "one" and the possesive "one's" may be grammatical, there are times when that construct would add unnecessary distance between the writer and the reader. The grammatically correct "one" has connotations of being too proper, too precise. If one is hoping to give the impression that one is "just folks", the ungrammatical use of "they" and "their" for the singular is much more in keeping with the vernacular. -- aMAZon @ AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL; ihnp4!ihuxf!features "Love your self's self where it lives." -- Anne Sexton