"gender neutral pronouns"

[John Dunn]

The sentence is actually ambiguous (sorry, Robert): does it mean (a) the first great historian produced by Russia or (b) the first person to achieve greatness in writing about the history of Russia?  To my linguistically-befuddled ear 'her', perhaps because it is 'emotional' and more suited to more figurative uses, tends to foreground meaning (b), while 'its' tends to foreground meaning (a).  Now try that one on your editor...

Moving on seamlessly to на мыло [na mylo] it is interesting to compare the context mentioned by Claire Wilkinson (about not removing the President) with A.I. Molotkov's* definition:

Долой, вон!  Требование изгнать, выгнать кого-либо как не справляющегося со своими обязанностями
[doloj, von! Trebovanie izgnat', vygnat' kogo-libo kak ne spravljajushchego so svoimi objazannostjami]

Metaphors have to retain some link with real life, and it is difficult to see how someone who has been boiled down to make soap can continue to carry out the duties of a president.  So what exactly did they mean?

John Dunn.

*A.I. Molotkov, Frazeologicheskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, 3rd edn, M., 1978.  For those who don't know it, it (sometimes, at least) reaches the parts that other official Soviet-era dictionaries didn't.


-----Original Message-----
From: "Valentino, Russell" <russell-valentino at UIOWA.EDU>
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2008 10:44:40 -0500
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] "gender neutral pronouns"

It seems you could go either way with it -- "her" tips slightly towards the foreign usage to my ear, "its" towards an unmarked contemporary English. The latter is less colorful. The former strikes me as slightly archaic or archaizing. It could also be quaint or nationalistic in some contexts. Gender is likely part of this (because of the personification of the country as a woman). I can see the reason for an editor wanting to use "its," e.g., to tone down a text. But if its part of an author's style or is otherwise important for conveying tone, it would make sense to keep "her."

Two cents.

Russell 


John Dunn
Honorary Research Fellow, SMLC (Slavonic Studies)
University of Glasgow, Scotland

Address:
Via Carolina Coronedi Berti 6
40137 Bologna
Italy
Tel.: +39 051/1889 8661
e-mail: J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk
johnanthony.dunn at fastwebnet.it

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