Re: Grammar

[John Haltiwanger <john.haltiwanger@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 4:23 PM, Richard Stephens
<richard.stephens@converteam.com> wrote:
>> On 26-7-2010 11:48, John Haltiwanger wrote:
>>
>>> It seems the most successful/widely adopted form is to vary from 'he'
>>> to 'she' (so that in one sentence you use one, in the next another).
>>> Some authors even change the gender within a sentence. This method was
>>> adopted because 'one' (the "real" correct unisex pronoun) is just too
>>> awkward for extended use. The morphographic he/she/he/she method reads
>>> surprisingly well.
>>
>> maybe male authors could use he and female authors could use she
>> consistently (or we could get accustomed to 'it')
>>
>> Hans
>>
>
> The trend that I have noticed (and which trips off the tongue most easily
> for British english-speakers) is to use the plural 'they' in place of the
> singular pronoun 'he' or 'she'. This avoids having to choose! For purists,
> it rankles, but then we have to accept that the language will change.
> Personally, for serious writing, I use the rather cumbersome, but
> grammatically correct, 'he or she'. I personally don't like 'he/she'. The
> use of 'one' as a pronoun in British english is pretty much dead and sounds
> very stilted to us - only the Queen and old school masters still use it!
> Using 'it' is not an option.
> Best regards,
> Richard

The best thing about switching the pronouns between uses (so, not even
on a sentence basis--in case that is how my first explanation was
perceives--but on the 'usage' of a pronoun. So, generally restricted
to a paragraph) is that you are making the explicit ('he or she')
implicit. You demonstrate that it is equally normal for one to occur
in the place of another in the current of your explanation, without
being cumbersome to speak within any given sentence (unless one is
uncomfortable with the subject noun of a given sentence being
feminine, of course).

The solution of sticking to your own gender is complicated by the
historical-and-ongoing trend to male dominance in academia. The
problematic of the gendered pronoun emerges as male voices normalize
the male as the subject of discourse. In this way Hans' solution would
only perpetuate the issue at hand, which is that feminine pronouns
appear as an "other" when all you ever see is male pronouns. It's
invocation is, simply by virtue of its disparity in appearance, an
edge case. Language has deep roots in the mind such that a linguistic
framing of something as Other can and in fact does 'other' the subject
at which the framing is directed. Some theorists, both male and
female, take it to the position of only using feminine pronouns in
their examples that require third-person. Others change it within
individual sentences in a more extreme demonstration of juxtaposition.

Personally, I find it a sign of forward-thinking when pronouns are
'neutralized' through this juxtaposition of possibility (ie both are
shown to fit equally the examples provided). Perhaps it is simply the
times I grew up in, but reading a man only ever writing 'he' implies a
crucial non-existence of concern re: the subject in the writer's mind.
I don't throw out their theory as a result of it, but it is certainly
something I note.

Then again, I'm a fringe member of a fringe discipline (new media), so
perhaps what I can do/what is expected linguistically is irrelevant
for the majority.

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