Personal Pronouns

[Rocco Stanzione]

On Wednesday 08 March 2006 20:23, Joseph Method wrote:
> It's not _totally_ ridiculous. "If a doctor has cured many patients,
> he will make more money," leads ineluctably to "So I was talking to my
> doctor today." "Yes, what did he say?"
>
> But, yeah. The true gender-neutral pronoun is "one",  not "they", only
> the English ear can't stand it for very long. I think the general
> correct convention is to alternate appropriately, by section or
> example. So don't be inconsistent within the same example.
>
> He/she is clunky and artificial.
>
> Alternatively, you could create two user characters, Larry and Ming :).

> -J. Method

Or worse, "Man is a mammal.  He births live young and suckles them at his 
breasts."  There really seems to be no ideal solution.  "He" has some obvious 
problems, but I still prefer it.  These days, "she" seems to have fewer 
problems, and I'm OK with it.  "They" is now acceptable, according to many 
authorities on the subject, but by God no style guide or newfangled 
grammatical reference is going to make me write it.  "He/she" is terrible.  
"He or she" I think solves most of the technical problems but gets tiresome 
to read if used more than about once per page.

The actual Chicago Manual of Style is I guess unavailable online, but I did 
find this at chicagomanualofstyle.org:

----
Q. I would swear that I saw a reference in your manual that approved of the 
use of "their" instead of a gender-biased singular pronoun. For example, "If 
the user has completed installing the program, they should put the CD-ROM 
back in the package," instead of "If the user has completed installing the 
program, s/he should put the CD-ROM back in the package," but on your Q&A, 
you dance around the answer to the question and suggest that you do NOT 
approve of the singular "their." Can you tell us what is acceptable?

A. Yes, you saw it at 2.98 (note 9) in the fourteenth edition, but there was 
some regret at having written it, and we decided not to second the idea in 
the fifteenth edition. Though some writers are comfortable with the 
occasional use of they as a singular pronoun, some are not, and it is better 
to do the necessary work to recast a sentence or, other options having been 
exhausted, use he or she. For a fuller discussion of this issue, see 
paragraphs 5.43 and 5.202-6 in CMS 15, including the entry for "he or she" 
under the "Glossary of Troublesome Expressions" at paragraph 5.202.
----

So even the venerable CMS seems to have trouble delivering a straight answer 
on the matter.  There already seems to be disagreement among our group, which 
is no surprise.  My only steadfast position is that I refuse to use the 
"singular they" solution.  If that's what ends up in the style guide, I will 
grit my teeth and refrain from correcting that usage, and in my own material 
I will rewrite entire paragraphs to avoid using it without violating the 
styleguide.  If we don't come to a consensus, and I'm beginning to doubt that 
we will, maybe we should leave the whole matter alone and let the individual 
author handle the matter as she sees fit ;)

Rocco Stanzione