Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Politically correct English

Should I write "she/he" or "he/she"? :-)
Kiuhnm

 Should I write "she/he" or "he/she"? :-)
You could randomly use one or the other as necessary. I've seen some
books which use
"she" all the time. You could use singular "they". You could tie
yourself in knots
and avoid the issue completely: it's tricky to do this without anyone
noticing, I'm sure.

 noticing, I'm sure.
I understand the idiom you used (tie oneself in knots) but what do you 
mean exactly?
Kiuhnm

Kiuhnm ha scritto:

I mean that when you need to refer to an unspecified way, you do so
in such a way that this person's sex is never referred to by means of
subject,
object or possessive pronouns, or by sex-specific words. "I was
speaking to a sibling
of a parent of mine" is a way to avoid saying "uncle" or "aunt", for
example, but
sounds so strange that anyone would immediately notice something was
going
on.
To obscure the gender of all people specific or otherwise you mention
without
it being apparent that you are doing it may require effort comparable
to that
required to tie yourself in knots. A friend of mine told me that.... I
mean, a friend of mine told
me about a former teacher who had noticed this problem with h... I
mean had noticed this
problem when talking with students.

 problem when talking with students.
Do you think that a student of English (as a second language) should try 
to speak and write in a "politically correct" way?
Kiuhnm



Io metterei he/she, mi sembra scorra via più liscio di she/he.
FWIW :)
-- 
Anna

 to speak and write in a "politically correct" way?
Avoiding "default he" seems useful.
And absolutely don't say "sons" if you mean "children", "brothers" if
you mean
"brothers and sisters" and so on. That's not politically incorrect,
it's just wrong.
If you ask even someone politically incorrect how many sons they have,
they'll say "zero" if they have 5 daughters.
(Note use of singular they. It's not lovely, but "he or she will say
"zero" if he or she
has 5 daughters" is worse)

 it's just wrong.
Of course. It's always been that way.
Kiuhnm

 "she" all the time. You could use singular "they". 
Nella lettera per il rinnovo di abbonamento dell'Economist c'era 
qualcosa tipo: "a subscriber would benefit from blablabla. They would 
also [...]"
Personalmente uso la terza persona plurale per riferirmi ad esempio a 
"somebody", ma vedere "they" in quella frase mi ha un po' preso alla 
sprovvista.
Ciao,
Enrico il Pentolaio.
-- 
There are two kinds of Italians, those who work for Berlusconi and those 
who are about to.

 sprovvista.
Io da ragazzino rimasi per anni perplesso davanti alla frase di una 
canzone: "The one you love is the one that should take you higher / you 
ain't got no one, you better go back out and find 'em"
Pensavo... "ma loro CHI??". (Fra l'altro nei testi c'era scritto "her", 
ma non lo diceva affatto... avevo valutato anche l'opzione "him", ma 
perché mai, mica parlava a una donna, era un discorso generico). Poi da 
grande ho capito... 8-)
-- 
Laz

 Kiuhnm
s/he :-)
nanà



I second "s/he".
-- 
Tchau, -João do Sabão


Nobody I know (UK) would write that . Lots of people now write 'he/she' 
(often the same people that write letters to me beginning 'Dear Sir/Madam') 
, though I don't . Use of 'they' to refer to the singular once sounded odd , 
but is now normal and like everyone else I use it frequently .
Mike 

 wrote in message
news:gd1i1znjerah$.i9fpadisk2zh$.dlg@40tude.net...

You can say "la giudice" but don't you also have to say "il magistrato" when
referring to a female officer of the court?
I have no problem using the default "he" in English.
Joe from Massachusetts

 You can say "la giudice" [...]
Volendo si dice anche "la ministra", ma non lo scriverei in contesti 
formali.


 Joe from Massachusetts
I would always say "Il giudice", even referring to a female officer.... 

 
Just wanted to send a funny post. At least "s/he" seems funny to me for 
personal reasons. I could not resist the tentation... sorry for that :)
nanà

 wrote in message 
news:y%2ol.1$kK...@nntpserver.swip.net...

Pas de quoi!  La tentation , il faut toujours y ceder . But sometimes you 
just can't be sure - I thought maybe 's/he' was text-speak , u no .
Mike 


-- 
Joe/Joey da New York