"gender neutral pronouns"

[Robert A. Rothstein]

Emily Saunders wrote:
> The present perfect, it seems to me, has already undergone a fairly 
> fundamental shift in standard usage where "did you eat?" is as 
> acceptable as "have you eaten," in ascertaining whether or not someone 
> is, at this moment, still hungry.
Recall the early scene from "Annie Hall" in which Woody Allen's 
character describes what he views as an anti-Semitic remark: "You know, 
I was having lunch with some guys from NBC, so I said, 'Did you eat yet 
or what?' And Tom Christie said, 'No, JEW?' Not 'Did you?'...JEW eat? 
JEW? You get it? JEW eat?"

I would suggest that many (most?) younger speakers of American English 
have lost the use of present perfect to describe a past action that has 
present relevance. The form is still used to refer to an action that 
started in the past but continues in the present ("I have lived here for 
twenty years"), where other languages use the present tense.

Bob Rothstein

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