<div dir="auto">I sent a version of this message earlier, but realised just now I only sent it to Christian.<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Maybe it's just me, but as a native speaker of English, when there is a referent whose gender is unknown or a hypothetical referent of unspecified gender, it actually sounds strange enough to border on ungrammatical to use third person singular masculine pronouns. It makes it seem as if there is a specific person of whom the speaker is aware but that they've forgotten to introduce them in the preceding discourse.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">I know there is no common gender non-specified third person singular pronoun in German, so knowing that Christian is German, I wouldn't have thought twice about the error unless he'd drawn attention to it. I would think it was just obvious interference from German. That said, it does seem bizarrely antagonistic to pre-empt any comments on it out of the blue. There are plenty of reasons not to prefer that construction that have nothing to do with "political correctness"; it just doesn't fit my native speaker intuition.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">If we'd like to make the discussion more linguistic, maybe other native English speakers can chime in with their judgements on "he" for referents of unspecified gender :-) Also, maybe mention your native dialect to see if that matters. Mine is working-class NYC metro area English.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Best,</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Niko</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, 10 May 2023, 15:59 Christian Lehmann, <<a href="mailto:christian.lehmann@uni-erfurt.de">christian.lehmann@uni-erfurt.de</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<div>Dear colleagues,<br>
<br>
I should, first of all, say that it was not my intention to start
a discussion on political correctness on this forum. On the one
hand, it is pretty clear that, among all genuinely linguistic
issues, this is the one which engages most people emotionally,
which means that a rational and constructive discussion is very
hard to conduct. On the other, one may ask why this would be an
appropriate topic for LingTyp. So, to repeat, the only thing that
I requested was that people refrain from criticizing or commenting
on other people's usage if political correctness is at stake. It
seems that nobody among those who have taken up the topic is
really against this request.<br>
<br>
This being said, it seems also clear that the issue involves a
number of problems that are of linguistic interest (although not
necessarily of typological interest). One is the question brought
up by Maïa: Do we have a right to determine our name? And further:
Do we have a right to determine how our people (our ethnos), town
and our country are called? (Remember that political correctness
has often required speakers to stick to the most recent
redenomination realized by locals.) <br>
<br>
Another is the question of politeness brought up by Jürgen: If I
use an expression that some people find politically incorrect, at
the same time sincerely and credibly assuring interlocutors that
I mean no harm (and if required, distancing myself explicitly from
pejorative or otherwise negative connotations that some people
associate with it), is it then me who is impolite or is it those
people who insist that I speak otherwise?<br>
<br>
Again, these are issues of pragmatics rather than typology. But we
typologists are not really that narrow-minded; so if people want
to take it up, go ahead.<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Christian<br>
-- <br>
<p style="font-size:90%">Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann<br>
Rudolfstr. 4<br>
99092 Erfurt<br>
<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Deutschland</span></p>
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<td>+49/361/2113417</td>
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<td>E-Post:</td>
<td><a href="mailto:christianw_lehmann@arcor.de" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">christianw_lehmann@arcor.de</a></td>
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