[lg policy] The gender-neutral pronoun: after 150 years still an epic fail

[Christina Paulston]

I beg to differ.  You increasingly see, and I have begun to do it  
myself,  they with a singular referent, like everyone - they  which  
apparently was common in the 18oo's.  Of all the alternatives, the  
best. Christina





On Aug 2, 2010, at 2:30 AM, Dennis Baron wrote:

> There's a new post on the Web of Language:
>
> The gender-neutral pronoun: grammatical necessity, consciousness  
> raiser, and after 150 years still an epic fail
>
> Every once in a while some concerned citizen decides to do something  
> about the fact that English has no gender-neutral pronoun. They  
> either call for such a pronoun to be invented, or they invent one  
> and champion its adoption. Wordsmiths have been coining gender- 
> neutral pronouns for a century and a half, all to no avail. Coiners  
> of these new words insist that the gender-neutral pronoun is  
> indispensable, but users of English stalwartly reject, ridicule, or  
> just ignore their proposals.
>
> read the whole post on the Web of Language:  http://bit.ly/weblan
>
>
> ____________________
> Dennis Baron
> Professor of English and Linguistics
> Department of English
> University of Illinois
> 608 S. Wright St.
> Urbana, IL 61801
>
> office: 217-244-0568
> fax: 217-333-4321
>
> http://www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron
>
> read the Web of Language:
> http://www.illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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