Intersexual/gender-neutral pronouns

Benjamin Barrett gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM
Wed Dec 5 02:37:12 UTC 2007


Chris F Waigl wrote:
>
> In this diverse group, "singular they", is the norm, including for
> example when the sex is known but irrelevant (when referring to a single
> member of a team that happens to be all-male, for example), and I could
> find examples for any of the above categories in a few days' worth of my
> email. This include communication with clients.
>
> What is remarkable to me is not so much that  "hir" or "zie" are absent,
> but that "he or she" is so totally out.
>
>
This sort of use is common, and I think I've read (perhaps on this list)
such use goes back for several hundred years.

But they remains problematic in many situations such as the one I
mentioned: Dr. Thomas said *they would go. BB

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