If any reader disagrees with my views he may post his comments below…. Sorry, that line was sexist. Let me state that again. If any reader disagrees with my views, he or she may post his or her comments below.. Sorry that sentence was too clunky…
Linguist Richard Lederer says in his book, “A man of my words”:
"While all other pronouns avoid reference to gender, the third-person singular pronouns in English- he and she- are gender specific. We are not fully comfortable with the male chauvinist, “Each student shall underline in his textbooks so that he can achieve his fullest academic potential” or the awkward “Each student should underline in his or her textbooks so that he or she can achieve his or her fullest academic potential”. To the most nettlesome problem in sexist language- the generic masculine pronoun- and to the grammatical stutter engendered by dancing back and forth between the sexes, they has long been a graceful solution as in “Each student should underline in their textbooks so that they can achieve their fullest academic potential”."
Apparently, this was the usage for generations, till the eighteenth century, when grammarians disparaged the use and decreed that indefinite pronouns are singular. Richard Lederer suggests that we should revert back to the old practice.
Linguist Richard Lederer says in his book, “A man of my words”:
"While all other pronouns avoid reference to gender, the third-person singular pronouns in English- he and she- are gender specific. We are not fully comfortable with the male chauvinist, “Each student shall underline in his textbooks so that he can achieve his fullest academic potential” or the awkward “Each student should underline in his or her textbooks so that he or she can achieve his or her fullest academic potential”. To the most nettlesome problem in sexist language- the generic masculine pronoun- and to the grammatical stutter engendered by dancing back and forth between the sexes, they has long been a graceful solution as in “Each student should underline in their textbooks so that they can achieve their fullest academic potential”."
Apparently, this was the usage for generations, till the eighteenth century, when grammarians disparaged the use and decreed that indefinite pronouns are singular. Richard Lederer suggests that we should revert back to the old practice.
So, if any reader disagrees with my views, they may post their comments below
2 comments:
maybe, to get even, use "her" this time. Waddaya think?
here it is: you can't negate one piece of sexist writing with another.
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