Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!daemon
From: bevans@tesla.unm.edu (Mathemagician)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: The unfortunate `generic masculine'
Message-ID: <12234@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Date: 25 Jun 89 22:36:24 GMT
References: <14647@duke.cs.duke.edu> <18083@paris.ics.uci.edu> <3268@ogccse.ogc.edu>
Sender: ambar@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: bevans@tesla.unm.edu (Mathemagician)
Organization: Society for the Preservation of E. coli
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Approved: ambar@bloom-beacon.mit.edu

In article <3268@ogccse.ogc.edu> pase@ogccse.UUCP (Douglas M. Pase) writes:

>In article <18083@paris.ics.uci.edu> lee@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.EDU writes:
>-I don't think it's a very good idea to refer to `they' ever as a
>-singular pronoun, since when it is subject, its verb would never display
>-singular agreement.

>It isn't necessary, a generic third person singular pronoun already
>exists.  It is `one', as in "one knows not to cross the street before
>the light turns green."

At the present moment, "one" can sound contrived or haughty (your
example seems, to me, to sound a bit snobbish..."One never sees
cake in the best houses these days....bread and butter." [Oscar Wilde,
"The Importance of Being Ernest])  And what happens to "him" and "her"?
("The apprentice will give the item to the master.  After giving it
to 'one' (?), 'one' will perform...")

At the present moment, "they" is the "best" alternative I can think of.

--
Brian Evans		|"Momma told me to never kiss a girl on the first
bevans at tesla.unm.edu | date...But that's OK...I don't kiss girls."