Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!harvard!talcott!panda!genrad!decvax!bellcore!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!mmm!mrgofor
From: mrgofor@mmm.UUCP (MKR)
Newsgroups: net.singles,net.nlang,net.women
Subject: Re: Grammar and Spelling on the Net (some solutions)
Message-ID: <605@mmm.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Mar-86 11:26:25 EST
Article-I.D.: mmm.605
Posted: Fri Mar 14 11:26:25 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 31-Mar-86 06:12:33 EST
References: <697@usl.UUCP>
Reply-To: mrgofor@mmm.UUCP (MKR)
Distribution: net
Organization: none
Lines: 52
Keywords: grammar,clarity,alternatives
Xref: linus net.singles:10071 net.nlang:4012 net.women:9436

In article <697@usl.UUCP> jew@usl.UUCP (James E. Wilson) writes:
>RE: the use of "their" in such constructions as "If a person can't
>    take the time to learn their own language..."
>
>and ambiguous.  Consider the following, which I have corrupted from
>an article in a local newspaper:
>
>    "Jury selection will continue today for the first degree
>     murder trial of Wilton C. Lindon, accused of the 1984
>     stabbing death of a 79-year-old Lafayette woman.  Police
>     report that a witness claims to have seen the accused
>     first enter THEIR residence..."
>
>Whose residence?  The clear intent is to protect the identity of
>the witness.  The first assumption that one is likely to make is
>that the victim and the witness lived together.  Another good
>possibility is that the victim and the accused did.  Perhaps all
>three.  (Lafayette police do not all live together, nor do future
>jurors.  But who knows, given the above?  Perhaps they were just
>one big (unhappy) family!  :-) ).  
>
>                               Jim Wilson



	As I pointed out in an earlier posting, the ambiguity shown
above does not arise from plural/singular confusion. Change the 
word THEIR to HIS. Now:


>    "Jury selection will continue today for the first degree
>     murder trial of Wilton C. Lindon, accused of the 1984
>     stabbing death of a 79-year-old Lafayette woman.  Police
>     report that a witness claims to have seen the accused
>     first enter HIS residence..."
>

	Whose residence? The witness's? The accused? If the victim had also
been male, it could have been his house. If the word "HER" had been used,
it could have been the victim's or the witness's house. All we gain by not
using THEIR is knowledge of the sex of the owner of the house. If there
is some confusion over the application of a pronoun, knowing the gender
doesn't clear things up unless only one of the possible referents is of
that gender. In cases like this, perhaps it is better not to use an 
ambiguous pronoun at all.


-- 
					--MKR

Sometimes even the President of the United States must have to 
stand naked.    - Dylan