Timeline for Is there any pronoun in English that can include both HE and SHE?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
16 events
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| Sep 19, 2021 at 9:20 | comment | added | Leon Conrad | 'tis' wouldn't work for me (at least initially) because of its similarity to the archaic/poetic contracted form of 'it is' and I would have to do a double adjustment to get used to the novel usage. The extent to which I would be willing to do that would depend on the quality of the work and its cultural significance. You'd have an education curve to take people through before they engaged in the work as a piece of literature, I think - at least in the initial stages. | |
| Sep 19, 2021 at 4:45 | comment | added | Kevin | @RoddyoftheFrozenPeas: Meh, go read Anathem. Then you'll get over the pronoun issue real fast in comparison to Stephenson's "Let's make up five new words every chapter" prose. | |
| Sep 18, 2021 at 19:21 | comment | added | gidds | @RoddyoftheFrozenPeas I'm drawing on my own experience reading a short story with artificial pronouns (e/em/er/ers/emself, IIRC) — they weren't explained, and I took the first couple of instances to be misprints! But it didn't take long to work out what was going on, and by the end I'd pretty much got used to them; they certainly didn't spoil the story. (This despite my being fussy and easily distracted by things like bad spelling, punctuation, and grammar…) Right now, such pronouns are clearly only for pioneers, and they is by far the most natural; but as you say, maybe one day…? | |
| Sep 18, 2021 at 19:07 | comment | added | Roddy of the Frozen Peas | @gidds - While there is some truth to that, some people like me read slowly enough and get distracted enough that you never really do get used to it, especially when it's not something used in common parlance. Maybe if in 100 years we standardize an expanded set of gendered/agendered pronouns, contemporary readers who grew up hearing them would read "tis" or "xis" and not even blink because it's part of their standard lexicon; but until that happens it will remain jarring. But as you say, change does have to start somewhere. :) | |
| Sep 18, 2021 at 16:01 | comment | added | gidds | @RoddyoftheFrozenPeas It's certainly distracting initially. If the story is well-written and engaging, though (and sufficiently long), then it'll probably become less so as you get used to it. (After all, every change has to start somewhere…) | |
| Sep 18, 2021 at 14:47 | history | edited | DWKraus | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Sep 18, 2021 at 14:42 | comment | added | DWKraus | I would certainly not recommend using alternate pronouns in a normal context, where conventional pronouns make more sense. But in a story where alternative gender is central to the story, it could certainly be relevant. | |
| Sep 18, 2021 at 14:40 | comment | added | DWKraus | @RoddyoftheFrozenPeas It is true I write almost exclusively in the sci Fi genre, so that is the perspective I have on the subject. I'm currently working on a story where the four main characters are an AI, a girl who is now a cyborg and lacks gender, a boy unable to obtain consent due to his subconscious psychic power, and a man constantly watched by the invasive spirit of his grandfather. I don't need to deal with alternate pronouns (except for the AI, who doesn't mind being called "it"), but sexuality gets complicated in science fiction. Weird pronouns are a real concern. | |
| Sep 18, 2021 at 14:36 | review | Low quality posts | |||
| Sep 20, 2021 at 0:27 | |||||
| Sep 18, 2021 at 5:18 | comment | added | Roddy of the Frozen Peas | For me, a big problem with non-standard words like this is that they're distracting. Instead of focusing on what you're trying to tell me, I'm now focusing on this weird pronoun you're using. In a sci-fi context (like the Star Trek novel which Henry mentioned, that I also have read), it's less of a distraction because you expect alien cultures to have, well, alien constructs. But if you're writing about modern day New York, it's not something I'm going to expect, so it's a bit of mental dissonance. Instead of just seeing "him" or "her" or "they", I see "tis" and have to change mental gears. | |
| S Sep 18, 2021 at 3:02 | history | suggested | Shayan Shafiq | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Sep 18, 2021 at 2:31 | review | Suggested edits | |||
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| Sep 18, 2021 at 1:16 | comment | added | Henry Taylor | It is a shame that we don't see more experimental grammar in modern writing. A couple decades ago, I read a Star Trek novel which had a character from a species which had three genders. The middle-sex was referred to with combined pronouns such as shim, hisher, and my favorite, shHe with both a soft and hard H sound in tandem. Unfortunately, I never saw any of that evolved grammar in other books, even in the same series. | |
| Sep 17, 2021 at 23:39 | history | edited | DWKraus | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Sep 17, 2021 at 23:32 | history | edited | DWKraus | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Sep 17, 2021 at 23:18 | history | answered | DWKraus | CC BY-SA 4.0 |