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From: ps@celerity.UUCP (Pat Shanahan)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: sexist language/bad attitudes
Message-ID: <274@celerity.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-Mar-85 22:27:02 EST
Article-I.D.: celerity.274
Posted: Tue Mar 26 22:27:02 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 30-Mar-85 00:39:57 EST
References: <824@druxo.UUCP> <269@mhuxr.UUCP> <825@druxo.UUCP>, <12080@watmath.UUCP> <544@hou5g.UUCP> <276@mhuxr.UUCP>
Organization: Celerity Computing, San Diego, Ca.
Lines: 25

> ... To approach the problem of
> sexism with pseudo solutions like a singular 'they' will not solve the
> problem. It will introduce confusion and ambiguity in communication.
> ...
>
> Marcel Simon

Marcel - Thou art lacking in consideration for the history of English, if thou
thinkest that replacing a singular pronoun and its corresponding verb forms
will seriously damage the language. I disagree with thee.

If I had written this in conventional modern English, you would have had no
way of knowing that this sentence is intended to be directed to readers in
general, even though the first sentence was addressed to an individual. The
switch between singular and plural pronouns expresses this perfectly. Note
that people are so used to the use of second person plural verbs that my use
of second person singular verb forms in this article is archaic.

The only reason for using the plural in addressing an individual is one of
politeness - the plural was considered more respectful.
-- 
	ps
	(Pat Shanahan)
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