"every child has their <whatever>" should be "every child has its
<whatever>" - as "child" is animate but is also gender neuter
(regardless of political correctness and woke culture.)
On 09/06/2022 23:26, Bob Bridges wrote:
> That's mostly true. But that's the neuter gender, which in English we apply
> mostly to inanimate objects.
>
> Not exclusively, though. Pet owners usually say "he" or "she" of their
> mammals, but we usually say "it" of an animal whose sex we don't know or
> don't care about ("it bit me!"). Some inanimate objects take "he" or "she".
> And until recently human children were properly "it", grammatically
> speaking, though nowadays that's become unpopular.
>
> ---
> Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313
>
> /* The cities are for money but the high-up hills are purely for the soul.
> -from _Galloway_ by Louis L'Amour */
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of
> Seymour J Metz
> Sent: Thursday, June 9, 2022 16:50
>
> Neuter singular pronouns for living beings. "They" and "them" are nominally
> plural in contemporary English, while "it" only applies to inanimate
> objects.
>
> ________________________________________
> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on behalf of
> Bob Bridges [robhbrid...@gmail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, June 9, 2022 3:54 PM
>
> Wait a moment, Shmuel: English still has the neuter. In fact ~most~ of our
> nouns are neuter, barring only a few exceptions, unlike the Romance
> languages which have only masculine and feminine. In English, almost every
> non-human noun and a handful of human ones are "it". What did you mean to
> say?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of
> Seymour J Metz
> Sent: Thursday, June 9, 2022 11:44
>
> Now, I could make a case that we would be better off had we retained the
> neuter gender.
>
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