Re: OT: Status, Portable

[Paul Williams paulwilliams5@xxxxxxxx]

At 29/06/2002 -0400, you wrote:
> A fourth element in the equation is style. I find "his or her" noticeably
> more cumbersome than "their".
> A solution would be words specific to these usages - a gender-neutral
> version of "her", another for the mixture between singular and
> plural. But it would require more discipline on the part of speakers than
> even members of this list might be ready to exhibit.
There is something you can use instead of his or her: its. And it sounds
'orrible. This discussion shows just how vibrant and dynamic the English
language is. Pity the poor French with their grammar: You would have no
problem with "Here is Tom and Jane. I want to borrow his pen." But consider
the French where the possessive must reflect the gender of the object.
"Voici Tom et Jane. Je veux prêter sa plume". Whose? Tom's or Jane's? As
the Frenchman rushes off to the penless Jane you realise why the British
Empire was so much more successful than the French one.
And as for German grammar (note that German spellcheckers are twice the
size of other Europeans): unmarried girls stopped being neuter in the 60s.
Can anyone advise me of software that checks for gender as well as spelling
in French? I still have terrible trouble with my le and la.

Paul