Epicene pronoun

[Thomas Anessi]

Alas, it is we (academics) who are not only holding up the change, but  
who caused the problem centuries ago!  "They" was widely accepted as a  
gender neutral pronoun as early as the 12th century. I read an  
excellent master's thesis on the subject years back, but this web page  
provides plenty of examples:
http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/austhlis.html

Jane Austen used "they" most often to refer to "anybody" and  
"somebody". Only in the 18th century (as I recall from memory) did  
grammar books decide that the question of disagreement between number  
(they) and gender (he) should be decided in favor of the public (and  
therefore discursive) "he" speaking for the domestic
"she".  As feminists pushed to reverse this choice in the 20th c.,  
coined terms, wordy phrasings, and avoidance strategies were  
privileged over the time-tested "they" by the academy.

In spite of grammarians' scoldings, the public has gravitated towards  
"they" in everyday speech, while generally following the conventions  
mentioned above or sticking with "he" in written discourse.

Perhaps the real political correctness is in the academy's  
stubbornness about accepting the extent to which "they" has become  
solidly entrenched in speech as an epicene pronoun. Since "you"  
already performs an analogous role as plural and singular pronoun, why  
would using "they" bring down the sky.

I do support a certain form of conservatism in terms how we uphold  
linguist standards (like SWE), so I do not mean to imply that written  
standards should chase after every shift in spoken language.  But in  
this case, the change is many decades old and clearly irreversible.   
They language users themselves have quite literally "spoken" on the  
matter.

I use the example of the epicene pronoun issue in class to explain  
what language change looks like as it occurs. When students then ask  
me what to use in their texts, I say, "Use any one of the possible  
choices at your own risk. The safest way to go is to keep using  
plurals until the academics can finally figure out what to do."

Sorry to fill up so much space with a posting about English, but I  
have been fascinated by the epicene pronoun issue for years, as many  
of my friends and associates know.


Thomas Anessi
Columbia University
Ph.D. candidate




> Ladies and gentlemen: (If you will pardon the expression),
>
> Alina said:  There are PC elements that some older generation people find
> objectionable, such as "his or her" instead of "his" referring to some
> unknown person, and some similar substitutions where the reference to ANY
> person was traditionally in masculine gender.
>
> Quite right:  I am old, and I do find "his or her" offensive. Just "his"
> used to be enough to indicate both sexes, and as we know, brevity is better.
> But the reason should be made clear: these long "euphemisms" are and have
> been used, _especially in the academic community_ especially among deans and
> above, to demonstrate their PC-ness to either hide or to sugar-coat an
> intention not to hire or promote a female of the species.  (I have actually
> heard of someone's using this device to avoid doing the unthinkable.)
>
> My argument is that it is not the language that rules (as some would make us
> think), but life itself. What we must change is the life part, and language
> will change meaning with us.
>
> Genevra Gerhart
>
> ggerhart at comcast.net
>
> www.genevragerhart.com
> www.russiancommonknowledge.com
>
>
>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------