On Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 4:23 PM, Richard Stephens
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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