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From: mcewan@uiucdcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Re: Gender-Specific Pronouns (and "a
Message-ID: <31600112@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 8-Feb-85 23:52:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.31600112
Posted: Fri Feb  8 23:52:00 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 11-Feb-85 06:04:06 EST
References: <1777@browngr.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:browngr:-177700:uiucdcs:31600112:000:2629
Nf-From: uiucdcs!mcewan    Feb  8 22:52:00 1985


> Languages change in response to the needs of people to communicate with
> each other in an efficient way.  Changes occur because, by growing
> convention, the new structure conveys the intended meaning more clearly.
> The use of 'they' with a singular referent does not improve the clarity
> of the sentence it is in, in fact it degrades the clarity.  As such, I will
> not be the only person to resist its use.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> A:  Ms. Johnson's secretary says that they will come by tomorrow.
> 
> B:  Are both Ms. Johnson and her secretary coming?
> 
> A:  No, only one person is coming.  I just said 'they' because I don't know
>     the gender of Ms. Johnson's secretary.
> 
> B:  Then why didn't you say 'he' as standard English convention requires.
>     We would have saved ourselves a confusing exchange.
> 
> A:  To say 'he' would have been sexist, it would have implied that the
>     secretary was male.
> 
> B:  Nonsense!  To say 'she' would have been sexist since it would assume
>     outright that the secretary was female.  By convention 'he' means
>     either a male or a person of undetermined sex depending upon context.
>     In this case the context clearly implied the sex was undetermined.
>     It's clumbsy, men should really have their own pronouns, but it works
>     the way it is.  To use 'they' is really confusing since it ALWAYS
>     refers to more than one person.
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One contrived example doesn't prove that "they" is more ambiguous than "he".
The ambiguity of the example is a result of the sentence structure more than
the pronoun chosen. If A had said "Ms. Johnson's secretary says that she
will come by tomorrow.", B would not know whether Ms. Johnson or her secretary
was coming, and if A had said "Mr. Johnson's secretary says that he will
come by tomorrow.", B would probably think that Mr. Johnson was coming, since
most people would think of a secretary as a woman. The use of "he" is much
more likely to cause confusion (when it is clear what the pronoun refers to),
since you can't tell if it means male or unknown.

Who says that the convention is to use "he"?  Most people I know say "they".
(I have this strange conviction that the speakers of a language, rather
than academicians, determine a language's usage. It's sort of like my belief
that state legislatures can't set the values of natural constants.)

			Scott McEwan
			{ihnp4,pur-ee}!uiucdcs!mcewan

"Uh oh. Looks like we got a 666 down there - diety on a rampage."