Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: Notesfiles $Revision: 1.7.0.10 $; site ism780
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!ism780c!ism780!jimb
From: jimb@ism780
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Grammar and Spelling on the Net
Message-ID: <62800002@ism780>
Date: Wed, 26-Feb-86 03:07:00 EST
Article-I.D.: ism780.62800002
Posted: Wed Feb 26 03:07:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Mar-86 00:46:52 EST
References: <658@frog.UUCP>
Lines: 50
Nf-ID: #R:frog.UUCP:658:ism780:62800002:000:2307
Nf-From: ism780!jimb    Feb 26 00:07:00 1986



> Diane Holt sez:
> >> If a person can't take the time to learn their own language,

> and Dana Nau sez:
> >  Correct usage would have been "If a person can't take the time to learn
> >his/her own language ..."
  ^^^^^^^
>  Dana, YOU'VE *GOT* TO BE KIDDING.  Tell you what, show both versions of
>  the sentence to the head of your English department.  You're a CS major,
>  and (I happen to know) Diane has a degree in English, go argue about
>  computer languages if you must, but leave english grammer to the
>  experts.

Oh, what the hell.  It's midnight and I have nothing better to do.  I'll
reply to the net instead of stopping Geoff in the halls; besides, I'm only in
the office one or two days a week.

As someone who earns his weekly bread by writing, I'm not crazy about either
example.  The "their" is clearly wrong because of disagreement of subject and
pronoun.  "His/her," on the other hand, is clumsy and awkward.

My preference would be to re-cast the sentence to read "If people...their..."
							   ^^^^^^
Otherwise, use the generic "his" which has nothing to do with male-ness in
this example.  People go to great lengths to butcher the language in pursuit
of fairness.  (I've even fallen to the "their" syndrome myself until my
editor -- or my wife -- catches it.)

These linguistic acrobatics lead to ridiculous positions.  My wife, who once
upon a time was editor of the Daily Bruin (UCLA school newspaper) tells two
tales of the wonderful yo-yo's up at Berkeley.  They once wrote an
ideologically "correct" student health manual that in discussing
contraception, referred to "placing a condom over a person's penis."
The other lulu was drafting an article that featured alternating pronouns --
his or her, every other time.

			-- from the musings of Jim Brunet

			   ihnp4/ima/ism780B
			   hao/ico/ism780B
			   sdcsvax/sdcrdcf/ism780/ism780B

	"In any large scale endeavor that has worked to the benefit of
mankind, there has been pain and sacrifice and loss.  We stand now at one of
the pivotal points in history.  We can say "no" to the unknown mysteries of
space, turn our backs, and announce our decline as a civilization.  Or we can
look at the stars, express our grief at the loss of CHALLENGER and its crew,
and then honor their lives by saying, 'We shall continue.'"