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Subject:Gender-Neutral 3rd Person Singular From:George Hayhoe <GFHayhoe -at- AOL -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 18 Dec 1995 15:39:21 -0500
In response to Tim Altom's posting, I'll repeat what I've said before several
times before on this list. We already have a gender-neutral 3rd person
singular pronoun that has the benefit of wide popular usage. The pronoun in
question is "they/them/their."
This fact made itself even more apparent to me during the past few months as
I taught college freshman composition for the first time in 12 years.
I'm not saying that use of "they" as a 3rd person singular is going to be
accepted by everyone, especially those who use language as a means of
identifying an elite class. Nevertheless, this is a usage which is so
entrenched as to be almost impossible to expunge.
SOAPBOX = ON
Now let's hope that current popular usages such as "like" and "go" for "say"
DON'T become so entrenched!
