There is historical precedent for using they as a singular pronoun, so it predates the claim that masculine generic pronouns are sexist. But I'm more concerned about stopping sexist behavior than about finding creative ways to see sexism that isn't actually there.
In case someone is concerned about the grammar when using they singular-verb, in Hebrew the usual name for God is a plural form used with singular pronouns. So it's not just old Modern English with that quirk. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [[email protected]] on behalf of Paul Gilmartin [[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, June 9, 2022 12:13 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: ] Re: "A Rexx" (or "A REXX") On Thu, 9 Jun 2022 15:43:31 +0000, Seymour J Metz wrote: >The Devil is in the details. The cases that you mention are not analogous. > >Now, I could make a case that we would be better off had we retained the >neuter gender. But most of what you mentioned doesn't represent an obvious >loss of clarity, conciseness, expressive power or precision. > Am I perverse? When I grudgingly bow to Political Correctness and use "they" as a gender-neutral singular pronoun, I use a singular verb with it. -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
