[Gendergap] He/she vs. she/he

[Ryan Kaldari]

Yes, the traditional usage has been predominantly masculine, but in 
modern usage, "they" is the dominant form. See my reply at 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Gender-neutral_language#She_before_he.3F

Ryan Kaldari


On 12/28/11 4:50 PM, Theo10011 wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 6:06 AM, Ryan Kaldari <rkaldari at wikimedia.org 
> <mailto:rkaldari at wikimedia.org>> wrote:
>
>     I responded to the inquiry and replaced all the gendered pronouns at
>     issue with singular they. On a related note, I'm very disappointed to
>     learn that the Chicago Manual of Style (which provided the basis
>     for the
>     original Wikipedia Manual of Style) has stopped recommending the
>     use of
>     singular they. As the use of singular they has been steadily
>     increasing
>     since the 1960s (Pauwels 2003), it is curious that the Chicago Manual
>     would be moving backwards. I have to wonder if there was some sort of
>     political pressure involved. On a positive note, the 2011 edition
>     of the
>     New International Version Bible now uses singular they.
>
>
> And I defended the reverting editor. 
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk%3AGender-neutral_language&action=historysubmit&diff=468184170&oldid=468179760 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk%3AGender-neutral_language&action=historysubmit&diff=468184170&oldid=468179760>).
>
> It's an interesting topic, but the original editor seems to be taking 
> a political stance, which the reverting editor might not know about. 
> The usage of Generic Antecedents, by definition require the gender to 
> be unknown or irrelevant. The traditional usage has been predominantly 
> masculine.
>
> I am not a native English speaker so I might be wrong on this, but the 
> article is using Generic Antecedents. The approach taken in English 
> language has certain usage hard-wired in the brain. There has been a 
> long standing argument about the political undertone about its usage 
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_antecedents#Political_opinions).
>
> What Kaldari did, while ideal to avoid any conflict or debate, is 
> debatable in the grammatical sense. The usage note in Dictionary.com 
> (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/they) and other sources 
> (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazine/26FOB-onlanguage-t.html?_r=2) 
> dispute usage of "singular" they as a gender neutral singular pronoun 
> rather than a plural pronoun.  The usage note mentions "This increased 
> use is at least partly impelled by the desire to avoid the sexist 
> implications of he as a pronoun of general reference."
>
> I'm sure Dominic can correct me if I'm wrong on this one.
>
> Regards
> Theo
>
>
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