It's a new month. After just 6 days, July 2011 is already replete with grammatical errors. Everywhere you turn, there's a misused apostrophe or a dangling modifier. But, as with most nationwide endemic problems, we can't win the war in a day. And so, at the clip of one tip per month, Tangent Space(s) continues to do its part...
Using the correct pronoun
Few ideas seem as polarizing as "political correctness." I won't go into that now. I only bring it up because political correctness is in some sense the reason we use an incorrect pronoun when a subject's gender is unknown.
I'll give an example sentence, and take you on a historical journey of how people of different eras might have chosen their pronouns:
I think a person should try to befriend [possessive pronoun] neighbors.
1. The good old days: he/him/his
(I don't actually know if these days were good, but they're somewhat old.) It was once universally accepted to use the masculine in the case of an unknown gender, so that whether a sentence was about an athlete, doctor, homeless person, or convicted felon, we just went with the masculine pronoun and made a mental note that we didn't really know the sex of the person.
The above sentence, then, would suggest that a person should befriend his neighbors.
2. The unwieldy alternative: he or she / him or her / his or her
With the advent of widespread political correctness, this new bulky option became the norm. The obvious drawback is that it's triple the word count. This isn't terrible when you need to use it once, but if you have 4 or 5 unknown-gender situations in a row in speech or writing, these added words are agonizingly cumbersome.
Back to neighbors: a person should befriend his or her neighbors.
3. The current answer to the bulky "his or her": mixing up "her" and "his"
In modern books, authors refuse to pay the price of repeated "his or her"s. So the current trend is to get a good mix of the sexes in the pronouns. Usually a male author will use "her" the first couple times -- just to ensure, presumably, that he's not sexist -- then go to an alternating system of "his" and "her".
Ex. A person should try to befriend her neighbors... A doctor must cultivate healthy relationships with her nurses... A politician must listen closely to his constituents... her... his... her... his...
4. The grating, terribly incorrect solution in speech: they/them/their
And this, English-speaking friends, is why I wrote this grammar tip. In casual speech, people will handle the unknown-gender problem by using a plural pronoun, since plurals aren't gender-specific. Unfortunately for the many people who do this, it sounds (to at least a few of us) like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Returning to the example of Mr. Rogers... A person should try to befriend their neighbors.
Do you see how catastrophic that is?!? "Person" is singular. "Their" is plural. "I" am irate.
I leave you with no hope
Just kidding. There's always hope. But in this dilemma, I don't know what to tell you. Here goes: When speaking, just say "his or her", or pick a winner. When writing something serious, go with option 3 above. When writing on Tangent Space(s) or an equivalently silly project, go with shis every time.
Thoughts? Questions? Ideas for future grammar tips?
Jon
