Re: Sexist Language Revisited

Subject: Re: Sexist Language Revisited
From: Chris <cud -at- telecable -dot- es>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 11:18:41 +0200


Hmmm... I thought I sent this out yesterday, but it didn't show - second try...

*****************
Dick Margulis kindly pointed out for me that the plural they does indeed exist. Apparently this has been covered before, but I have to do this in public. So I googled around... (Google is not a verb yet, but I'm working on it. Party on!)

From Shakespeare:
God send every one their heart's desire!
[Much Ado About Nothing, Act III Scene 4]
There's not a man I meet but doth salute me,
As if I were their well-acquainted friend.
[Comedy of Errors, Act IV Scene 3]

(What does he know? Anyway, couldn't that be poetic license? Mine has expired...)

And look at what I found rooting around in
http://www.english.vt.edu/~grammar/GrammarForWriters/forum/ForumTheir.html

"What did you bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?"
-- child to parent.
"I believe it's strictly a matter between the patient and his doctor."
-- senator Hayakawa opines upon the subject of abortion.
"The sample for resumé stock is missing, because sadly enough, someone brought it upon themself to steal it."
-- notice posted at UCSC copy center, summer 1991.
"No mother should be forced by federal prosecutors to testify against their child."
-- Monica L.'s mother's lawyer.

These are good little problems, anyway.

And this links to the exhaustive discussion from the same site:
http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/austheir.html#X1x

And this from the OED (not clear which issue - found in still the same site as above):
(http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/sgtheirl.html)

* They

2. Often used in reference to a singular noun made universal by every, any, no, etc., or applicable to one of either sex (= `he or she').

See Jespersen Progress in Lang. §24.
* 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 163b, Yf... a psalme scape ony persone, or a lesson, or else yt. they omyt one verse or twayne.
* 1535 FISHER Ways perf. Relig. ix. Wks. (1876) 383 He neuer forsaketh any creature vnlesse they before haue forsaken them selues.
* 1749 FIELDING Tom Jones VIII. xi, Every Body fell a laughing, as how could they help it.
* 1759 CHESTERF. Lett. IV. ccclv. 170 If a person is born of a gloomy temper ... they cannot help it.
* 1835 WHEWELL in Life (1881) 173 Nobody can deprive us of the Church, if they would.
* 1858 BAGEHOT Lit. Stud. (1879) II. 206 Nobody fancies for a moment that they are reading about anything beyond the pale of ordinary propriety.
* 1866 RUSKIN Crown Wild Olives §38 (1873) 44 Now, nobody does anything well that they cannot help doing.
* 1874 [see THEMSELVES 5].


While the OED is describing use, it seems to shy away from pronouncements on whether the use is, strictly speaking, correct. Only that it's convention - which may be a definition of correctness for some. Also, it points out the singular made universal. So I guess that means you would have to do that with truckers before referring to them with a singular they (if the OED and their [sic] approval is of concern to you). "Any trucker doing this stuff must fiddle their faddle."

Spain may have a leg up on this issue of declaring correctness vs convention - every 10 years the Real Academia de la Lingua Español (or something pompous like that) revises the official and royal lexicon to incorporate conventional use. Recent atrocities include:

* Mitin (pronounced "meeteen") - A convention where speeches are
delivered (unnecessary because Spanish already has a term, but
using something similar to English is much more cool)

* Parking (a noun) - "He left his car at the parking"

There are plenty of others I can't recall at the moment. Come to think of it, maybe the OED is better off not taking a stand!

Anyway thanks to Dick for keeping me honest!

cud

--
Chris Despopoulos, maker of CudSpan Freeware...
Plugins to Enhance FrameMaker & FrameMaker+SGML
http://www.telecable.es/personales/cud/
cud -at- telecable -dot- es


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