RE: Gender neutral - any new developments in your neck of the woods?

[Sean Hower <hokumhome -at- freehomepage -dot- com>]

This discussion reminds me of some discussions we had in college about the ways in which language was used to oppress women. The gender neutral pronoun "he" was often used as an exmple. The discussion inevitably came to the idea that "he" should be abolished because its abolition would further equality......... <sigh /> I never did get that argument. It implies that you can't have thought without language, and that by removing an offending word you somehow remove the thought that accompanies it. Wrong. Even Sapir and Whorf realized their hypothesis was wrong, and that it was based on faulty data.

Now, even when I was a little boy, ignorant of the slings and arrows of outrageous political correctness, I always thought using "he" for both men and women was silly. I have always used they, and I have always been marked wrong for it in school. My editor at my current job has also suggested rewrites for it. So, I simply try to avoid using it all together. I guess I'm finally starting to develop a minor complex about it....drat. THAT'S the system holding me down, man!! :-)

Bruce is right. We are in the midst of an shift to using "they." In 50 or 100 years using "they" will probably be standard. Bruce, I'm sure that the EDUCATED few back in the 17th century DID lament the proliferation of "you" simply because it WAS change. People have always lamented change in language, and usually have ascribed it to laziness or ignorance. Didn't Plato whine about it? I don't remember........

On the note of change, if I remember correctly change (innovation) usually manifests in the lower social classes. The innovation is usually viewed in a bad light. But over time, the innovation works its way into the higher social classes, where it becomes the "proper" way to speak. But by the time that happens, new innovations have already appeared in the lower classes and are working their way through the social strata. My point being that eventually, using "they" will be the "proper" way to speak, but some other innovation will have appeared that will come under fire.




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"And in the morning, I'm makin waffles." ~ Donkey
Sean Hower - tech writer
http://hokum.freehomepage.com

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