Baby's an It (call of the obstetrician?)

Mark Mandel thnidu at GMAIL.COM
Wed Sep 10 02:12:34 UTC 2008


Whatever you call it, "mommy", "daddy", etc., fall into the same category,
except that they can also refer to the speaker.

m a m

On Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 7:36 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> At 4:10 PM -0700 9/9/08, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
> >I've often wondered if "baby" should be considered a pronoun. You see
> >it in sentences like (making them up):
> >
> >When baby gets into trouble
> >
> >My guess is you also see:
> >
> >When doggy won't obey
> >When kitty won't come
> >
> >BB
>
> More a proper name than a pronoun, I'd reckon.
>
> LH
>
> >
> >On Sep 9, 2008, at 3:55 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >
> >>-
> >>Of course, the use of "it" simplifies one's grammar. When writing a
> >>paper on babies or children, authors can simply use "it" instead of
> >>using "he ... her," "she ... him" or other grammatical asininities in
> >>a silly effort not to appear genderist, as though the 99.44% of the
> >>population that has no interest whatsoever in scholarly papers of any
> >>kind would give a flying fox at a rolling doughnut about this
> >>"problem" with the English language.
> >>
> >>-Wilson
> >>
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
Mark Mandel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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