A Person Paper on Purity in Languages
Thursday, 30 September 2004 14:04![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pneAn interesting article that John Cowan pointed out to me—using "black" vs "white" to talk about sexism in language (including, but not limited to, pronouns).
pnepneProfile
Philip Newton
Page Summary
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Active Entries
- 1: English needs a preposition “atto”
- 2: Random memory: memorising powers of two
- 3: Random memory: Self-guided tour
- 4: Is 17 the most random number between 1 and 20?
- 5: The things you learn: inhaled objects are more likely to land in your right lung
- 6: I can speak Esperanto; the test says so!
- 7: The things you learn: Canaanite shift
- 8: You know you’re getting better at a language when…
- 9: 3/14 1:59
Style Credit
- Style: Cinnamon Cream pne for Crossroads by branchandroot
- Resources: Vintage Christmas 6
Expand Cut Tags
No cut tags
no subject
Date: Thursday, 30 September 2004 21:12 (UTC)There are some people who will complain, though - especially those who can't (or don't want to) categorise themselves as "male" or "female". Or those who, for some reason, believe that gender is truly irrelevant and should not be mentioned.
Also, which pronoun do you use if the gender is not known? "Ah! I see that tomorrow Dr. Smith will be giving a lecture. I hope it will be interesting to listen to XXX (him? her? him or her? it? them? em? zir?)" Having gendered pronouns forces you to make this distinction.
Similarly with your "Sie und ihr" example - if you're speaking about a group of people: "Each participant must bring his/her/its/their/zir/eir/??? own notebook."
NB I tend to be fairly conservative on this point and use "he" if the gender is un-known, but wanted to point out that I've found that there are people who do not like gendered pronouns, and I think the above are some of the points that have been made.