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Posted by Scott Dorsey on 09/14/06 13:29
HiC <brassplyer@xahoo.xom> wrote:
>"Roy W. Rising" <rwrising@dslextreme.com> wrote in message
>> > > Like "... THE engineer knocking THEIR coffee cup over ..." I'm sure
>> > > you meant "... HIS coffee cup ...".
>> >
>> > Am I supposed to know it's a guy?
>>
>> No, you're supposed to know the rules of grammar.
>
>Kindly point to a citation demonstrating that a generic reference is
>supposed to indicate the masculine. If you're right, I'll learn something.
>If you're wrong, we'll all learn that you're wrong.
OED. Also the Harbrace College Handbook. I was told that "the male pronoun
always includes the female" back in third grade, but then we learned to
diagram sentences and to use semicolons as pauses back then too.
I think this usage has fallen into disfavour, but for those folks who believe
the third edition OED is prescriptive and not descriptive and that we should
establish an Academie Anglaise to freeze and codify the language as embodied
in the third edition OED, well, those folks would claim the usage remains
standard.
--scott
(who is arguably one of those folks sometimes)
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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