On 09/22/2015 06:17 AM, Geoff Winkless wrote:
> On 22 September 2015 at 10:52, Gavin Flower
> <GavinFlower@archidevsys.co.nz
> <mailto:GavinFlower@archidevsys.co.nz>>wrote:
>
> On 22/09/15 21:33, Geoff Winkless wrote:
>
>
> Without wanting to get into a grammar war, I'm not so sure I
> agree that it "condones" it. Dictionaries reflect the current
> state of usage, they don't act as arbiters of correctness. The
> abuse of "literally" as an emphasiser (which usage is now
> listed in the OED) is a prime example.
>
> I would prefer "his or her" over "their". Perhaps our American
> cousins might disagree though.
>
> I prefer "their" rather than "his or her", it is less clumsy &
> there is no point in specifying gender unless it is relevant!
>
>
> I agree in that I prefer "their" in informal speech; however in a
> formal document I would find it sloppy. I don't think "his or her" is
> inherently clumsy; m
> aybe I'm just showing my age.
>
> Besides, some people are neither, or their biological gender is
> ambiguous - so a few people fit into neither the male nor the
> female category (depending on precise definitions, about 0.5%)!
>
>
> My understanding is that most intersex (and certainly all trans)
> people would identify with one or the other, and even those who don't
> select exclusively identify with a mix of both (and would therefore
> still be covered by "his or her", no?) although I don't pretend to be
> an expert.
>
> Perhaps it would be easier to avoid the controversy by actually
> rewording into the plural, where possible?
>
> So
>
> "any user can make such a change for his session."
>
> becomes
>
> "Users can make such a change for their individual sessions"
>
> or similar?
>
>
You are fighting a losing battle. Think of they/them/their/theirs as
being indefinitely gendered third person singular pronouns, as well as
being third person plural pronouns. Yes it's a relatively new usage, but
I don't think its at all unreasonable (speaking as someone who has been
known to dislike some new usages and neologisms). It's not at all
sloppy. On the contrary, it's quite deliberate. It's just not quite
traditional. You need to get over that.
Your proposed style would make writing docs a lot harder, forcing us to
avoid use of the singular in cases where it is quite natural. I'm
strongly opposed to such a style rule.
cheers
andrew