"X's widower"

[Lynne Murphy]

--On Monday, September 8, 2008 11:00 am -0400 Wilson Gray
<hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> Are there many - or any - people still around who learned as I did
> that a baby is an "it" and not a "he" or a "she"?

'Dunce' blogged about this a few months ago, noting it as more British than
American in his experience--in mine too.

<http://newpics.org/david/AreBritishChildrenMoreNeuterThanUSChildren.aspx>

A 60-something English friend of ours persists in calling our 8-month-old
daughter 'it', but then he corrects himself because he's been taken to task
for it many times.

Lynne


Dr M Lynne Murphy
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language
Arts B135
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QN

phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org