everybody...their

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>>>"No mother should be forced by federal prosecutors to testify against
>>>their child." -- Monica Lewinsky's mother's attorney

In case this slipped by: as this sentence reads, it appears that the child
referred to is the child of the federal prosecutors (who presumably work
very closely together).

For comparison: "No federal prosecutor should be forced by parents to bring
charges against their child."

>>>Man is the only mammal that is embarrassed by his {nakedness/sexuality}
>>>#Man is the only mammal that is embarrassed by his pregnancy.
>>
>>I would prefer "its" instead of "his" in these (in fact I consider "its"
>>correct). ...
>
>Well, I myself don't get "its" as a sex-neutral animate in such cases, at
>least not for human reference.  "its pregnancy?"

In the phrase "the only mammal that is embarrassed by his nakedness" I
think the antecedent of "his" is "[the only] mammal"; therefore I prefer
"its" to "his":

Is there any mammal that is embarrassed by its [own] nakedness?
Man is the only mammal that is embarrassed by its [own] nakedness.
The hermit crab is the only crustacean that is embarrassed by its [own]
nakedness.
The only mammal that is embarrassed by its [own] nakedness is man.
No mammal is embarrassed by its [own] nakedness ... except for man.

I think I'm on solid ground traditionally here [corrections welcome]. The
next part is perhaps idiosyncratic.

>Is this more scientific than the above "Man is the only mammal that is
>embarrassed by his nakedness/sexuality"?

I meant that ALL of these examples with "man" have the word "man" (and its
pronoun "he") used in a way which seems to me a little bit out of place in
a context wherein the human race is regarded as just one of a number of
animal species. This part is just my own casual notion, although I presume
several others said the same thing much better long ago. The natural
common-gender singular pronoun in this context is "it", and I wouldn't have
a problem with something like "The human [being], the gorilla, and the
chimpanzee are closely related, but each has its own distinctive
{culture/parasites/menstrual cycle}." I would advise my children to try to
avoid something on the order of "Unlike the [other] apes, the human has
some neuroanatomical features which may complicate its pregnancy." only
because of tradition. My objection to something like "When somebody works
for somebody and they have somebody else working under them, [you know,]
they should[, like,] do their best for them." is on somewhat different grounds.

-- Doug Wilson