Baby's an It (call of the obstetrician?)

[Benjamin Barrett]

I've often wondered if "baby" should be considered a pronoun. You see
it in sentences like (making them up):

When baby gets into trouble

My guess is you also see:

When doggy won't obey
When kitty won't come

BB

On Sep 9, 2008, at 3:55 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> -
> Of course, the use of "it" simplifies one's grammar. When writing a
> paper on babies or children, authors can simply use "it" instead of
> using "he ... her," "she ... him" or other grammatical asininities in
> a silly effort not to appear genderist, as though the 99.44% of the
> population that has no interest whatsoever in scholarly papers of any
> kind would give a flying fox at a rolling doughnut about this
> "problem" with the English language.
>
> -Wilson
>

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