January 06, 2005
Casting call for a new pronoun
The English language is missing a key part of its language: a gender-neutral singular pronoun that can refer to a person. Sure, we have a gender-neutral singular pronoun -- it's "it" -- but the word is dehumanizing. We need something that can be used when we don't know the gender of somebody but need to refer to that person anyway. Right now, we can use "him or her" -- as in, "The lottery winner can come forward to claim his or her prize" -- but that's really clumsy. Often, by mistake, we end up using a gender-neutral plural pronoun, like this editor did in a recent column:
The situation was brought to our attention by one nameless writer who recognized what was happening, and cared enough to let us know. In addition to my apology, let me thank that letter writer for their concern.
The "their" was italicized by me, not the editor. But, see what's wrong there? Apparently sci-fi and transgender folks have latched on to the pronoun "hir" (as in, "I told hir") to fit this need, but I think that simply combining "him" and "her" sounds a bit too silly. We need something new and fresh. Sure, English is already full of holes, but this is one that could really use some fixing.
And now, I will step off the linguistic soapbox. Thank you.
Posted by Jason Feifer at January 6, 2005 11:49 AM
Comments
This is where I point out that "they" has been used as a singular neuter pronoun for centuries:
http://www.bartleby.com/64/C005/018.html
Merriam-Webster comes down even more strongly in favor of the singular "they":
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=they
Basically, everyone uses it and does not hear it as an error unless the supposed singular/plural discrepancy is pointed out to them and they think about it too much. Efforts to create a made-up neuter singular pronoun will never catch on when people already have one that feels natural to them.
Posted by Francis at January 7, 2005 02:17 PM
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