On 29/10/10 08:39, Samuel Penn wrote: > On Thursday 28 October 2010 22:29:59 Lisi wrote: >> On Thursday 28 October 2010 17:57:35 Keith Edmunds wrote: >>> gender neutral >>> third person singular possessive pronoun. Maybe I should have said, >>> "that no one in its right mind would want to work for..." >> >> I still maintain that the common gender in the case of humanity is >> the same as the masculine. > > Some would disagree. My experience with discussion on the subject > tends to be around gaming, a hobby which is stereotypically male > but trying to attract more women. Exclusive use of the masculine > doesn't help break the stereotype (and the artwork doesn't help > either).
where 'some' includes me and 1. The Oxford Dictionary http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/their?rskey=VUxQA7&result=1#m_en_gb0856800 2. Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/their 3. Merriam-webster http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/their "they", "their" and "them" have been used as singular, non-gender-specific pronouns for as long as I can remember (iun almost exactly the same way as you and your, only 3rd person, not 2nd) Even in books from a century ago or older - see the wikipedia entry for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they which has quotes from Shakespeare and Thackeray In a language with no gender system for nouns (at least, not any more!) other than fanciful references to ships as 'she', plus a few other idiosyncrasies, this is a meaningless battle that is long lost. >> ... >> think that in 50 to a hundred years "their" will have become >> singular just as "you" has, but I don't think we are there yet. it already is (and plural, too!) > Lots of people use 'their' as singular gender neutral (including > myself) already. It may not be technically correct, but we're > working to make it so. It is technically correct (or at least an acknowledged use) see references above... :) Next up, some of my personal bugbears... fewer vs less (Tesco etc, sort yourselves out) I vs Me (he vs him, who vs whom etc etc) what exactly do we teach children in school these days? Regards, Stuart -- Stuart Sears RHCA etc. "It's today!" said Piglet. "My favourite day," said Pooh. -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --------------------------------------------------------------
