English has a pronoun that can be used for either gender and, as an accident of history not some hidden agenda, said pronoun in English is “he/him/&c.”
Edited: VAuroch is the best kind of correct on “neuter” pronouns. Changed, though that might make a view less controversial than I thought (all but 2 readers agree, really?) even less so :)
I consider this an incoherent claim. “A neuter pronoun”, inherently, is one that can be applied to individuals regardless of gender (actual or grammatical). That’s what people want when they wish English had a neuter pronoun. ‘He/him/his’ is not such a pronoun. “They/them/their” is.
Nope. “Of all the men and women here, one will prove his worth” is grammatical and does not imply a man IMO. I’m not defining myself right of course, just clarifying why my contrarian claim is coherent.
That was historically true, but many women and nonbinary people disagree with the statement that it is still true. And it was never neuter; it used to be the case that using male pronouns for an unspecified person was grammatically valid.
You are exactly right on technical use of “neuter.” Fixed, and thank you.
What is a nonbinary person in the sense you are using it, apart from a subset of non-women? I can’t get use from context. Just for curiosity, and probably off topic so pm if exactly one person cares.
If I thought everybody agreed it wouldn’t be contrarian now would it?
Nonbinary people consider themselves neither male nor female, both male and female, male and female individually but at different times, or any other vector combination of genders besides {1,0} and {0,1}; naturally, they are all transgender. They’re fairly uncommon, largely because the idea that identifying as nonbinary is not available to the vast majority of people and would be stigmatized if they did choose to adopt it.
Singular “they” existed but then it waned out of use. It has seen some comebacks. If gender information would not be criticfal it woudl have been “he” that would ahve vaned. It might not be a hidden agenda but more like ununderstood or emergent derived agenda.
English has a pronoun that can be used for either gender and, as an accident of history not some hidden agenda, said pronoun in English is “he/him/&c.”
Edited: VAuroch is the best kind of correct on “neuter” pronouns. Changed, though that might make a view less controversial than I thought (all but 2 readers agree, really?) even less so :)
I consider this an incoherent claim. “A neuter pronoun”, inherently, is one that can be applied to individuals regardless of gender (actual or grammatical). That’s what people want when they wish English had a neuter pronoun. ‘He/him/his’ is not such a pronoun. “They/them/their” is.
Nope. “Of all the men and women here, one will prove his worth” is grammatical and does not imply a man IMO. I’m not defining myself right of course, just clarifying why my contrarian claim is coherent.
That was historically true, but many women and nonbinary people disagree with the statement that it is still true. And it was never neuter; it used to be the case that using male pronouns for an unspecified person was grammatically valid.
You are exactly right on technical use of “neuter.” Fixed, and thank you.
What is a nonbinary person in the sense you are using it, apart from a subset of non-women? I can’t get use from context. Just for curiosity, and probably off topic so pm if exactly one person cares.
If I thought everybody agreed it wouldn’t be contrarian now would it?
Nonbinary people consider themselves neither male nor female, both male and female, male and female individually but at different times, or any other vector combination of genders besides {1,0} and {0,1}; naturally, they are all transgender. They’re fairly uncommon, largely because the idea that identifying as nonbinary is not available to the vast majority of people and would be stigmatized if they did choose to adopt it.
Huh, interesting. I had never heard of that, thank you.
How about “every married person should love his husband or wife”?
Singular “they” existed but then it waned out of use. It has seen some comebacks. If gender information would not be criticfal it woudl have been “he” that would ahve vaned. It might not be a hidden agenda but more like ununderstood or emergent derived agenda.