On Mon, Mar 09, 2009 at 02:39:46PM +0100, Marco d'Itri wrote: >l...@liw.fi wrote: > >>While I agree with Ben, perhaps we could retire this, the 12765th >>iteration of this discussion, in favor of having a discussion about >>platforms and some Q&A with the candidates? >Maybe this is a good time to ask the candidates what is their position >wrt this PC bullshit. >So candidates, what do you think about this?
Not that I think this is a particularly important issue, but... My main problem with using "he" etc. as gender-neutral prononuns is that it sounds really old-fashioned, in en_GB at least. I'm also unconvinced by the new made-up "sie", "hir, etc. as they're just too uncommon: they sound awkward and the vast majority of English speakers will have no understanding of them, making them pointless. So, both intentionally and by default, I use "they" and "them" to cover both singular and plural cases. Some people may complain that they believe singular "they" to be invalid, but I don't care. English as a language is defined by usage, not by pedants making up and following arbitrary rules. There are lots of discussions of this topic on the net (e.g. [1],[2],[3]), so I'm not going to spend any more effort on it myself. [1] http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-the2.htm [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they [3] http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/austheir.html -- Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. st...@einval.com "I've only once written 'SQL is my bitch' in a comment. But that code is in use on a military site..." -- Simon Booth -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-vote-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
