Re: Three Kinds of Logical Trees

On 26 Jul 2005 12:56:26 -0700, "dawn" <dawnwolthuis_at_gmail.com> wrote:

>Gene Wirchenko wrote:
>> On 25 Jul 2005 22:06:50 -0700, "Marshall Spight"
>> <marshall.spight_at_gmail.com> wrote:

[snip]

>> >[Let me just state for the record that my singular indefinite "he"
>> >is not gender specific. Rather it is a consequence of the lack of
>> >a gender inspecific pronoun in the English language, coupled with
>> >a wish to avoid the difficulties of speaking of indefinite people
>> >in the plural. Void where prohibited. Driver carries no change.]
>>
>> There are two. One is "he" which has a gender-neutral meaning
>> when gender is unknown.
>
>but does not (typically) render a gender-neutral picture in people's
>minds (at least not in my mind). Men might view themselves as a
>possible "he" while women will tend to picture someone apart from
>themselves filling that role.
>
>I have no idea to what extent such sloppiness in the language from the
>start has lead to incorrect perceptions, but I'm quite sure the set
>thereof is not null.

     Nor I.

>> The other is "it".
>
>I'd prefer to be called an "it" than a "he". In the 80's most of my IT
>mailings were addressed to Donald Wolthuis. So, some people even
>ensure that the proper nouns sound male. Enough already!

     I, OTOH, have had my name corrected to "Jen" in one mailing where it seems it was supposed that only women would be interested. I am interested in how women there are in business.

[snip]

>> >> Yup, let's just hope no one else is attempting to follow this one.
>>
>> Bzzzt!
>
>Rats -- you found us. And, as with any of my postings, if I wrote
>anything that wasn't exactly brilliant, please disregard and don't
>count it against me. Are you left with a null? smiles. --dawn

     Zero, ah, zee-row is not the same as null.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko Received on Wed Jul 27 2005 - 00:21:21 CEST