[Ads-l] "man" avoidance

[Jonathan Lighter]

Nobody said that "gender" is "the most important aspect," but the writer
seems to think  it's of no interest whatsoever.

If you believe that "311 people" is clearer and more informative than "309
men and two women," there's no point trying to persuade you. The specific
mention of the two women would also forestall the misapprehension that all
311 members of a fighter group were men.

The TMI principle seems to make the "non-African-American," etc., versions
theoretically more informative but stylistically impossible - except as
sarcasm in a tendentious, vastly different context.

JL



On Sat, Sep 24, 2016 at 3:10 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> "...over the age of 18 mainly from working-class families...."
>
> JL
>
> On Sat, Sep 24, 2016 at 2:47 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Sep 24, 2016 at 12:42 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > One would not ordinarily write "309 non-African-American men and two
>> > non-African-American women."
>> >
>>
>> "Take it / To the limit / One more time"
>>
>>
>> --
>> -Wilson
>> -----
>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>> -Mark Twain
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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