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

[Margaret Lee]

A wire news story yesterday reported on a newborn baby found abandoned on a doorstep in  a canvas bag in Newton, Mass:  "The baby, its umbilical cord still attached, was in the bag, along with a blanket and pillow."  There is no mention of the gender of the baby.
 
 
--Margaret Lee

--- On Wed, 9/10/08, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:

From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Baby's an It (call of the obstetrician?)
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Date: Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 12:36 AM

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





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