(no subject)

[owlectomy]

I hadn't heard Geoff Pullum's ringing endorsement of singular "they" before. I'm a fan of singular "they," personally, but it's very convincing in how awful some of the alternatives sound:

A journalist can’t be so shy that he or she can’t bring himself or herself to go up to a stranger he or she sees and ask him or her to give him or her his or her opinion.’

Oh? 'He' is gender-neutral? Well--


‘Was it your father or your mother who hurt himself?’

Good enough for Jane Austen and W.H. Auden is good enough for me.

Comments

[ravenstormcrow.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I'm with you on the ridiculousness of the idea that "he" could EVER be gender-neutral. Every time I suggest using "she" as the neutral pronoun or "womankind" in place of "mankind" I get some guy howling at me about how it doesn't include him. Well, there you go.