6 ms·

If we had genderless pronouns we wouldn't have to care about details like that which don't materially affect the article or its criticisms. Having said that, f

by seabee 15y ago

If we had genderless pronouns we wouldn't have to care about details like that which don't materially affect the article or its criticisms. Having said that, fields with a more even gender ratio have had to deal with this for a while - what do they do?

JacobAldridge 15y ago
I tend to just be lazy and put "the OP" instead of he/she/it, although you could nitpick me on that as well since the author of an article posted to HN is often not the "original poster" in question.
- jodrellblank 15y ago
  "OP" roughly meaning: "walk up the comment tree, including comments and authors, all the way to the article and whoever submitted it, stop at the one I'm talking about, which should be pretty clear from the context of what I'm saying".
  - JoshTriplett 15y ago
    At least in theory, "OP" means "original poster", making it unambiguous. Though sometimes people mean the root of a comment thread, rather than the article.
    - politician 15y ago
      Not to navigate off-topic, but merely as an aside, perhaps we can solicit the W3C to weigh in with guidance for <op>.
- lelf 15y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun#Summary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun#Summary
gte910h 15y ago
English does have a genderless singular pronoun: They Just because a book said it was preferred in 1848 to use he when sex is indeterminate (then went on to use both singular he and singular they) doesn't mean that's true today. The language always used both. Why stop today? Might feel a bit odd at first if you're not used to it, but it's not a bit different than how singular "you" is used ("You are coming today?" uses the plural form of "be"). The book itself used both forms! Shows you that English teachers may have been overly strict with you in the past. Some more on the topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
- danso 15y ago
  Thank you for this. I had always (only slightly, though, in a grammar nazi way) looked down on people who used "they" for a singular pronoun because I thought that many do so just out of carelessness. But glad there is a formalized reasoning for it. I've always used "he/she". But that's not quite accurate (or elegant) either.
- drcube 15y ago
  "You" started out plural. "Thou" was the singular version. Then "you" started being a form of respect, similar to the royal "we" or the Spanish "usted". Finally, we all became "you"s, sort of how we all became "sirs and madams" and "ladies and gentlemen" when those were originally a select class. Anyway, "They" has been undergoing this process for a few centuries now, and I concur that it's time to embrace it.
  - gte910h 15y ago
    >Thackeray's use of both forms demonstrates. "The alternative to the masculine generic with the longest and most distinguished history in English is the third-person plural pronoun. Recognized writers have used they, them, themselves, and their to refer to singular nouns such as one, a person, an individual, and each since the 1300s." I don't really think it's an evolution, as much as the mid1800's tendency to over classify and striate things going away.
- FuzzyDunlop 15y ago

by seabee 15y ago

JacobAldridge 15y ago

I tend to just be lazy and put "the OP" instead of he/she/it, although you could nitpick me on that as well since the author of an article posted to HN is often not the "original poster" in question.

jodrellblank 15y ago
"OP" roughly meaning: "walk up the comment tree, including comments and authors, all the way to the article and whoever submitted it, stop at the one I'm talking about, which should be pretty clear from the context of what I'm saying".
- JoshTriplett 15y ago
  At least in theory, "OP" means "original poster", making it unambiguous. Though sometimes people mean the root of a comment thread, rather than the article.
  - politician 15y ago
    Not to navigate off-topic, but merely as an aside, perhaps we can solicit the W3C to weigh in with guidance for <op>.
lelf 15y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun#Summary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun#Summary

gte910h 15y ago

English does have a genderless singular pronoun: They Just because a book said it was preferred in 1848 to use he when sex is indeterminate (then went on to use both singular he and singular they) doesn't mean that's true today. The language always used both. Why stop today? Might feel a bit odd at first if you're not used to it, but it's not a bit different than how singular "you" is used ("You are coming today?" uses the plural form of "be"). The book itself used both forms! Shows you that English teachers may have been overly strict with you in the past. Some more on the topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they

danso 15y ago
Thank you for this. I had always (only slightly, though, in a grammar nazi way) looked down on people who used "they" for a singular pronoun because I thought that many do so just out of carelessness. But glad there is a formalized reasoning for it. I've always used "he/she". But that's not quite accurate (or elegant) either.
drcube 15y ago
"You" started out plural. "Thou" was the singular version. Then "you" started being a form of respect, similar to the royal "we" or the Spanish "usted". Finally, we all became "you"s, sort of how we all became "sirs and madams" and "ladies and gentlemen" when those were originally a select class. Anyway, "They" has been undergoing this process for a few centuries now, and I concur that it's time to embrace it.
- gte910h 15y ago
  >Thackeray's use of both forms demonstrates. "The alternative to the masculine generic with the longest and most distinguished history in English is the third-person plural pronoun. Recognized writers have used they, them, themselves, and their to refer to singular nouns such as one, a person, an individual, and each since the 1300s." I don't really think it's an evolution, as much as the mid1800's tendency to over classify and striate things going away.
FuzzyDunlop 15y ago