[Ads-l] "man" avoidance

[Flourish Klink]

Well, I agree with just about everything you just said; I don't *think* I've
been arguing on the part of the "PC police," nor that I've been expressing
support of that sort of language-patrolling; so perhaps we really have
exhausted the subject!

On Sun, Sep 25, 2016 at 6:32 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> > neatly shuts down what I thought was an enlightening conversation
>
> Obviously not, since this is an open forum catering to opinionated
> enthusiasts, who may be expected to chime should they wish to. But I can't
> think of anything more to say, myself.
>
> But as for general enlightenment, let me repeat the line about "recent
> socio-semantic hypotheses," with the emphasis on "hypotheses." I'll even
> suggest churlishly that one function of such hypotheses is, at least in
> certain cases, to afford powerless sociolinguists a fun feeling of real
> power over language and the people who use it, along with the ego-boost
> that they're somehow building a better future. (What far-right satirist
> could have dreamed up a university that slaps a trigger-style warning on
> "you guys" when - no secret - plenty of women now say it to each other?)
>
> The most important linguistic lesson I learned as an undergraduate was,
> "Language isn't logical; it's psychological."
>
> I.e., isn't consistent, isn't fully rational, and - except for robots -
> can't be made so.
>
> JL
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Sep 25, 2016 at 9:57 AM, Flourish Klink <flourish.klink at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Well, that neatly shuts down what I thought was an enlightening
> > conversation (or anyway, a conversation in which I discovered some things
> > about English, even if I never came to agree with you).
> >
> > There's a joke in here about gender and being "stabbed by a point," but
> > damned if I can find it.
> >
> > On Sun, Sep 25, 2016 at 9:06 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Some prefer the minimally informative "311 people": minimally
> informative
> > > though, indeed, demanded by some recent socio-semantic hypotheses.
> > Others
> > > prefer the more informative "309 men and two women."
> > >
> > > No one seems to care for "309 non-African-American men and two
> > > non-African-American women, all over the age of 18," etc.
> > >
> > > TMI.
> > >
> > >
> > > JL
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > JL
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Sat, Sep 24, 2016 at 11:01 PM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > << "man" avoidance" ... gender ... 309 men and two women>>
> > > > How Claire Chennault fits into all this is another question. My guess
> > it
> > > > was either a case of the Moulan Complex, or [wait for it] ... the Boy
> > > Named
> > > > Sue Syndrome. Not that I'm being judgmental, but it does make ya
> wonder
> > > ...
> > > >  (I.e. maybe it was 308 to 3?)
> > > >
> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > 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."
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > 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."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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