[lit-ideas] Re: grades & kleenex
- From: andy amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 7 May 2004 08:01:38 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
I read someplace that the feminine pronoun didn't exist until I can't remember
what century. Is that correct?
-----Original Message-----
From: Harold Hungerford <hh@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: May 6, 2004 10:37 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: grades & kleenex
What you're not understanding is that "they" is being used as a
replacement for "he" or "she" as a third person singular, in an attempt
to avoid the implicit sex bias of "he" (usually) or the clumsiness of
"he or she." It has become de facto a third person singular in certain
contexts, usually when an "every" is in the neighborhood. Example:
"Every child went out to play. Then they came back in . . ." or
"Everyone should get out their kleenex now."
Once upon a time "you" referred only to two or more persons. Once upon
a time there was a pronoun "wit" which referred to two, and only two,
persons. Once upon a time (Chaucer's) the standard object case form of
"they" was "hem" and the possessive was "her," which also functioned as
the possessive of "she." Once upon a time (Chaucer's again) the
nominative case of today's "it" was "hit" in standard upper-class
English. The pronoun system in English has changed with glacial
slowness, but it has changed despite the efforts of pedants.
Harold Hungerford
Professor Emeritus of English
>
Could you provide an example of the acceptable use [of "they"] you have
in mind?
What is he/she if not third person singular? And if it is replaced in a
second iteration in a sentence with "they," I would say there is a
problem
of agreement. What am I not understanding?
David Ritchie
Portland, Oregon
Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage . . .
(Joachim du Bellay, 1522-1560)
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