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> and that is ridiculous in general. What’s ridiculous about it specifically? I’ve studied linguistics and English is my 2nd/3rd language and I’ve never under
by rpastuszak 3y ago
> and that is ridiculous in general.
What’s ridiculous about it specifically?
I’ve studied linguistics and English is my 2nd/3rd language and I’ve never understood what all the fuss is about.
(My native language is highly gendered and inflected and hearing the calque “they” from English still doesn’t stand out that much to me)
- mhb 3y agoIt's ridiculous to overload a word that is commonly used and understood instead of inventing an unambiguous new word.
- rpastuszak 3y agoBut that’s a very common process that happens in virtually* every language.
- mhb 3y agoSo is inventing new words. Urban Dictionary much? Which do you prefer - a language that evolves to become more expressive or one that morphs into a miasma that requires disambiguation?
- rpastuszak 3y agoI think you're describing a false dichotomy. A language can become more expressive through any of these processes (e.g. neologisms or shifting meanings described before), often working in tandem.
- mhb 3y agoAnd how does that relate to this specific example of it being ridiculous to use the ambiguous "them" as a singular pronoun instead of picking a new word? Are you saying that the use of "them" is more expressive or do you just want to abstract the issue into irrelevance?
- emodendroket 3y agoBeing more or less expressive doesn't necessarily have much to do with it. When we lost a number of verb conjugations or collapsed singular and plural second-person pronouns that didn't make the language more expressive. Arguably the opposite was true. Notwithstanding, thou dost not insist on using these archaic language features, I imagine.
- pjc50 3y agoPeople tried to invent all sorts of neopronouns but none of them (there's that word again) stuck.
- emodendroket 3y agoYeah, that's why I reject the notion of calling the computer screen a "desktop."
- Georgelemental 3y agoIt's ridiculous in that it takes the reader several paragraphs to understand that only one person is being referred to.
- mftrhu 3y agoYou think?
- mhb 3y agoWell, I and Georgelemental.
- pjc50 3y ago> I’ve studied linguistics and English is my 2nd/3rd language and I’ve never understood what all the fuss is about. Indeed. If any of these people complaining about pronouns were exposed to Japanese their heads would explode as soon as they tried to talk about themselves. Conversely, Finnish has always had ungendered pronouns, and Chinese only introduced them 100 years ago and then only in the written language https://www.capstan.be/the-gradual-rise-of-gender-neutral-pronouns-in-hong-kong-and-mainland-china/ https://www.capstan.be/the-gradual-rise-of-gender-neutral-pr...