3 ms·

This may be a little picky, but this statement just doesn't make sense: :He is fundamentally a rebel—She will not be happy unless" Where did the she come from?

BigZaphod 16y ago
"She" probably came from some attempt at political correctness. There's been a rise in recent decades to use "she" when speaking about an unspecified person. Historically, it was common to use "he" for that task. Unfortunately english doesn't have a gender-neutral pronoun and until/if one becomes accepted this will probably continue to be a confusing issue... edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun
- philwelch 16y ago
  Unfortunately english doesn't have a gender-neutral pronoun Yes it does: "they". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
  - mmt 16y ago
    I believe the grandparent commenter meant: English does not have a unique[1], singular, gender-neutral pronoun. [1] unambiguous
    - philwelch 16y ago
      I've never heard a sentence in actual usage[1] where the usage of the singular "they" was ambiguous. In terms of being understandable and elegant, the singular "they" is probably the best English can do. Unfortunately, it's not widely accepted because it "sounds" uneducated, despite being the current best solution to the problem. Gender-neutral neologisms, like Spivak pronouns [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spivak_pronoun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spivak_pronoun], are not commonly understood, while constructs like "he/she" or randomly alternating between generic "he" and generic "she" as in the OP is inelegant and confusing (hence this whole thread). [1] I'm sure you could construct a contrived example.
      - mmt 16y ago
        Fragment. Damned good device. Written language has more legitimate uses than completely formed sentences. Pronouns can be troublesome enough, figuring out the antecedent, without requiring yet more context analysis.
thesethings 16y ago
Yeah. I caught that too. So awkward. As a she, i'm all for some "she's" in abstract examples, but they switched pronouns in the middle of an expression. Strange.
imgabe 16y ago
I know, I can't believe that got published in a magazine like Forbes. Do they even have editors there?

BigZaphod 16y ago

"She" probably came from some attempt at political correctness. There's been a rise in recent decades to use "she" when speaking about an unspecified person. Historically, it was common to use "he" for that task. Unfortunately english doesn't have a gender-neutral pronoun and until/if one becomes accepted this will probably continue to be a confusing issue... edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun

philwelch 16y ago
Unfortunately english doesn't have a gender-neutral pronoun Yes it does: "they". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
- mmt 16y ago
  I believe the grandparent commenter meant: English does not have a unique[1], singular, gender-neutral pronoun. [1] unambiguous
  - philwelch 16y ago
    I've never heard a sentence in actual usage[1] where the usage of the singular "they" was ambiguous. In terms of being understandable and elegant, the singular "they" is probably the best English can do. Unfortunately, it's not widely accepted because it "sounds" uneducated, despite being the current best solution to the problem. Gender-neutral neologisms, like Spivak pronouns [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spivak_pronoun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spivak_pronoun], are not commonly understood, while constructs like "he/she" or randomly alternating between generic "he" and generic "she" as in the OP is inelegant and confusing (hence this whole thread). [1] I'm sure you could construct a contrived example.
    - mmt 16y ago
      Fragment. Damned good device. Written language has more legitimate uses than completely formed sentences. Pronouns can be troublesome enough, figuring out the antecedent, without requiring yet more context analysis.

thesethings 16y ago

Yeah. I caught that too. So awkward. As a she, i'm all for some "she's" in abstract examples, but they switched pronouns in the middle of an expression. Strange.

imgabe 16y ago

I know, I can't believe that got published in a magazine like Forbes. Do they even have editors there?