What Does the English Language Lack?
Visited 1300 Times Published by Rico May 29th, 2007 in What and Writing.A generic singular pronoun. In other words, a word that refers to an individual outside the conversation (third person) without specifying the person’s sex. The need for this is much more important than you probably think.
Remember the last time you had to refer to a specific person in a group? As in Everyone on this team should do his share. But what if there were both men and women in the group? Some people would default to his—the masculine third person singular—hoping that the reader would understand that he was referring to both sexes.
That’s what I did, especially since using his or her, his/her, or even (s)he, are really awkward options. And you can’t use a neutral pronoun, right? I mean, it’s pretty insulting to refer to someone as an it, unless you really hate that person. Saying Everyone on this team should do its share might get you beaten up.
But then I realized—feminist reactions aside—that using a gender-specific pronoun was very confusing. What if the reader thought I was only talking about the males in the group? What if I really was only talking about the males in the group? That’s why people are pushing for the acceptance of the singular they.
While using they, their, them, and other generic plural pronouns are technically wrong (since they’re supposed to refer to plural nouns after all), they make the words flow better. Compare the sentences below:
Everyone on this team should do his or her share.
Everyone on this team should do their share.
Which sentence is more clear?
Conventionalists will frown on this, but I don’t think using the generic plural pronoun will destroy the English language. Especially if parts of the Bible and Shakespeare’s plays are written this way:
Arise; one knocks. […] Hark, how they knock!
—Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene 3, 1599
So likewise shall my heavenly Father doe also unto you, if yee from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
—King James Bible, 1611
So I wonder: Does any writer want to do it their way? Or does any writer want to do it his or her way?
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Hala oo nga. That makes sense. It’s weird that the english language does not have a “generic singular pronoun”. It’s even weirder that most of us doesn’t notice. LOL. So hey, so geeky of you to even point this out. *clapclap*
It’d be weird though, to add another word to the english language just to correct this. I duno, a hybrid of HE and SHE maybe. O kaya, make SHE the default nalang or something. After all, there are more women than men in this world.
Dude this post is so geeky! Hehehe.
Grammar geek! We’re twins that way, I guess…
Riz: Yes, but using she will bring us back to square one.
And what about him/her? Himer? Herim?
Markku and Luis Cruz: I can’t help it if I’m really one. I’d be happy if you guys start using the singular they, so I guess I am geeky.
Wow, it does make you appreciate Filipino more for having the generic “niya”.
I’m not with the “their” thing, it does make the sentence a bit confusing.
Hey, I forgot to include that in this post. Thanks for reminding me about it!
Trust me, I got confused in the beginning. But this is something you can get used to.
To be honest, it isn’t a total solution, but the best one we have right now.