[Gendergap] He/she vs. she/he

[Theo10011]

Incidentally, the person credited for popularizing for this male-centric
usage, is Anne fisher[1], an 18th-century British schoolmistress, and one
of the first woman to write an English grammar book. She wrote "A New
Grammar" (1745), one of the most successful Grammar guide of the time.
The NY times article describes her as a feminist and a prosperous
entrepreneur of the time, running a school for young ladies in addition to
running a printing business and a newspaper in Newcastle with her
husband.[2]

Regards
Theo

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Fisher_(grammarian)
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazine/26FOB-onlanguage-t.html?_r=2

On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 6:20 AM, Theo10011 <de10011 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 6:06 AM, Ryan Kaldari <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
> ).
>
> 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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