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Gender Neutral Pronouns
One of the current trends in the english language seems to be the search for a gender neutral pronoun to replace he, his, him, etc. It seems that these have been (or are in process of being) replaced by they, their, and them respectively. (I would probably use "one" but I agree that is sounds and reads very poorly) Apparantly context will tell the reader (or listener) when the singular or plural is intended (although it is beyond me why context can't be used to distinguish between a masculine or all inclusive meaning).
Even the leader of the free world (while not particularly well known for his command of the complexities of the English language, he speaks better than most Americans) has (probably unwittingly) endorsed this trend.
But then Bush endeavored to put those accomplishments into perspective. When it comes to the big stuff, he said, Uncle Sam is a heartless old man. "We understand that government-government can't love," Bush said. "Government can pass law, government can hand out money, but government cannot put heart-hope in a person's heart, or a sense of purpose in a person's life. That's done when ***a loving citizen puts their arm around somebody*** who hurts and says, 'How can I help you? What can I do to make your life better?' " (source unknown)
I'm curious about what is happening in other languages. French and Spanish both (if I remember correctly) have masculine and feminine "they" (and the masculine version is used to represent a mixed group) and neither has a concept of his/hers since the posessive pronoun is dependent upon the gender of the object, not the owner.
I'm curious about how other languages deal with these kind of gender issues and if they are evolving.
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