[lit-ideas] Re: The Serpent's Club
- From: "Phil Enns" <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2004 19:22:49 -0500
Robert Paul wrote:
"The Pronoun Wars have given us 'If a person has measles then their skin
will have spots,' 'If someone exercises vigorously, they will sweat,'
and other infelicities, but to object to them is to appear to be a
curmudgeon or worse, not as regards grammar but as regards sexual
equality."
"Though the masculine singular personal pronoun may survive awhile
longer as a generic term, it will probably be displaced ultimately by
_they_, which is coming to be used alternatively as singular or plural.
This usage is becoming commonplace. Speakers of American English resist
this development more than speakers of British English, in which the
indeterminate _they_ is already more or less standard. That it sets
many literate Americans' teeth on edge is an unfortunate setback to what
promises to be the ultimate solution to the problem." (From the entry
'Sexism' in Bryan Garner's "The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and
Style")
But then Garner is a descriptivist so perhaps Prof. Paul finds himself
more in sympathy with Fowler, a prescriptivist curmudgeon?
Sincerely,
Phil Enns
Toronto, ON
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