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

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:12 PM -0400 9/9/08, Mark Mandel wrote:
>Whatever you call it, "mommy", "daddy", etc., fall into the same category,
>except that they can also refer to the speaker.
>
>m a m

Yes, sort of indexical names.  I'm not sure "Mommy" and "Daddy" [as
indexical names] are that different in function from "yours truly",
"{this/your faithful} correspondent", "the present writer", etc.,
except that they're used more with children.   As far as the illeism
component, children at the toddler stage often use their own name in
place of the first person pronoun too.  (But I guess not "Baby",
except for Baby Houseman in "Dirty Dancing".)

LH

>
>On Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 7:36 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
>>  At 4:10 PM -0700 9/9/08, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>>  >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
>>
>>  More a proper name than a pronoun, I'd reckon.
>>
>>  LH
>>
>>  >
>>  >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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>
>
>
>--
>Mark Mandel
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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