Newsgroups: sci.lang.translation,sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!gatech!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!ncar!uchinews!ellis!deb5
From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: International Language.
Message-ID: <1995Jan15.022334.22388@midway.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System)
Reply-To: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago
References: <1995Jan6.075328.17902@midway.uchicago.edu> <3f76hf$g03@mother.usf.edu> <3f95tr$dbo@expert.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 1995 02:23:34 GMT
Lines: 29
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.lang.translation:714 sci.lang:34352

In article <3f95tr$dbo@expert.cc.purdue.edu> buttrcup@expert.cc.purdue.edu (uiuaty98725kjsd) writes:
>Is it just me, or isn't there a neuter term for third person singular?
>
>One?

"Neutral," not "neuter."  "Neuter" implies that something has no
sex (although "it," which can refer to sexed non-persons, such as 
animals, is often misleadingly called a "neuter pronoun").

Unfortunately, "one" has a very formal ring to it and so tends to
be avoided in American speech.  A German friend of mine, educated 
in Britain, once excused himself from missing an appoinment by
saying "One should check one's calendar before one makes an appoint-
ment, shouldn't one?"  Perfectly correct, but laughable all the same.

One usage I particularly like is alternating between he and she.  That 
is, one uses "she" throughout the first example given, "he" throughout
the next, and so on.  Takes some getting used to, but it's unambiguous
and balanced.  

ANTI-PC FLAME DISCLAIMER
(Note that I'm simply presenting this as a suggestion.
If you want to go on saying "he", "one", "s/he", "the person aforemen-
tioned", etc., I really don't care and I'm not going to try to change
the way you speak.)
-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
