PC vs. euphemism

[Michele A. Berdy]

Olga Meerson wrote: "I find the expression 'his or her' unusable in Russian. 
Chitatel' ozhidal, chto... obviously includes female readers, while 
chitatel'nitsa ozhidala chto... equally obviously EXcludes male readers. 
This is the nature of Russian as a grammatically gendered language, period, 
end of discussion. Chitatel' ili chitatel'nica ozhidali, chto..., in fact, 
creates a differentiation between the two, that is somehow gender-based--as 
if it would be understood by default that male and female readers always 
expected DIFFERENT things. In gendered languages, an attempt to use this 
formally inclusive language may, in fact, add a sexist tint, or at least a 
note of a sentimentalist, deliberately Lawrence-Sternian or Karamzinian, 
gesture to the comment or implicit address..."

A couple of years ago I wrote an article on bias-free and inclusive English 
for translators (it can be found at 
http://www.thinkaloud.ru/feature/berdy-bias.doc). Discussions with E>R 
translators showed that it is virtually impossible to render some of this in 
Russian, although since then I have found that some Russian branches of 
international NGOs do apply the he/she distinction (particularly in calls 
for job applications). 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 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/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------