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Well, I knew it was going to happen sooner or later when one of our university policies that referenced
<i class="">emeritus faculty</i> was being invoked: How have institutions resolved the linguistic conundrum of drawing on a latinate form without replicating the habitual association with masculine syntax as default
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<div class=""><i class="">Emeriti</i> as a Latin plural could be seen as a form of erasure. Would the orthographically awkward form
<i class="">emeriti/emeritae</i> (or <i class="">emeritae/emeriti</i>, for that matter) be the best compromise (for now)? [And what about word order?; think a<i class="">ttorneys general</i>. Do we maintain the “traditional” head-initial compound, or switch
to the more regular (in English) head-final version? But I digress….]
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<div class="">It’s right up there with <i class="">they/them/their</i> being acceptable (or not) as singular pronouns. Pragmatics (however linguistically “improper”) has long been a force affecting, even effecting syntactic change, hasn’t it?</div>
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<div class="">-RJS<br class="">
<div class=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none;">
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<div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="">===========================</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="">Richard
J. Senghas, Ph.D.</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; text-align: -webkit-auto;" class="">Immediate Past Chair of the Faculty & Academic Senate</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="">Professor, Anthropology</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; text-align: -webkit-auto;" class="">Sonoma State University</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="">1801
East Cotati Avenue</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="">Rohnert
Park, CA 94928-3609</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="">Richard.Senghas[at]<a href="http://sonoma.edu" class="">sonoma.edu</a></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;" class=""><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="">707-664-3920
(fax)</font></div>
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