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| What are personal pronouns? | |
| There are two uses beyond the simple substitution of
she for Sheila, |
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| And those are? | |
| The singular indefinite pronoun and the singular pronoun of personification. | |
| What? | |
| I thought you'd never ask. | |
| 'He' is the singular indefinite pronoun in English ("if a person drinks too much, he will likely experience a hangover"). 'He' also happens to be the masculine personal pronoun. | |
| Oh - and the other one? | |
| 'She' is the singular pronoun of personification in English ("if England fails to advance America's foreign-policy ambitions, she will suffer terrible consequences"). 'She' also happens to be the feminine personal pronoun. | |
| Oh - so ...? | |
| Confusing the two exhibits not a warm-and-fuzzy concern for the inclusion
of women so much as a writer's or speaker's ignorance. Using the feminine
personal pronoun as an indefinite article is as moronic as using the masculine
personal pronoun for personification. Thus the captain greets us: "Welcome
to my ship. Isn't he splendid?" I mean, give it up, people. It's not thoughtful; it's just illiterate. |
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| Ah. That does sound a bit stupid. | |
| I thought you'd see it my way. | |
| It seems I always do. | |
| btw - many thanks to Thomas C. Greene of the Register for his unusually grammatical (at least for the Register) analysis of this topic. | |