On 22 September 2015 at 10:52, Gavin Flower <gavinflo...@archidevsys.co.nz> wrote:
> On 22/09/15 21:33, Geoff Winkless wrote: > >> >> Without wanting to get into a grammar war, I'm not so sure I agree that >> it "condones" it. Dictionaries reflect the current state of usage, they >> don't act as arbiters of correctness. The abuse of "literally" as an >> emphasiser (which usage is now listed in the OED) is a prime example. >> >> I would prefer "his or her" over "their". Perhaps our American cousins >> might disagree though. >> >> I prefer "their" rather than "his or her", it is less clumsy & there is > no point in specifying gender unless it is relevant! > I agree in that I prefer "their" in informal speech; however in a formal document I would find it sloppy. I don't think "his or her" is inherently clumsy; m aybe I'm just showing my age. Besides, some people are neither, or their biological gender is ambiguous - > so a few people fit into neither the male nor the female category > (depending on precise definitions, about 0.5%)! > My understanding is that most intersex (and certainly all trans) people would identify with one or the other, and even those who don't select exclusively identify with a mix of both (and would therefore still be covered by "his or her", no?) although I don't pretend to be an expert. Perhaps it would be easier to avoid the controversy by actually rewording into the plural, where possible? So "any user can make such a change for his session." becomes "Users can make such a change for their individual sessions" or similar? Geoff
