Evolution
Someone wrote…
We all know that language is evolving all the time, as evidenced by the fact that the words “twerk” and “selfie” have recently become part of the Oxford English dictionary. So why is it so challenging to get a socially accepted singular non-gendered set of pronouns?
What’s your experience?
Posted by Freiya on September 9th, 2013 at 08:00 am
Category: your voice 4 comments »
September 9th, 2013 at 11:37 am |
It’s the binary world we’ve been dealt. Pronouns probably won’t change during our lifetime. The only hope we have is that at least our communities and networks of family and friends will address us properly. That alone counts tremendously.
P.S. I had no clue “twerk” made it into the dictionary. Gross.
[Reply]
September 9th, 2013 at 11:51 am |
Maybe it’s partly because there are so many options and no one of them has become the default choice yet. I can think of a half-dozen sets of non-gendered personal pronouns that I’ve heard/read being used.
I’m pretty sure it’s “they/them” that is going to end up winning out. Merriam-Webster, for example: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/they
[Reply]
September 9th, 2013 at 2:17 pm |
There is a sciency linguistic answer for this! Pronouns are a “closed class” in English (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_class) so inventing new ones and trying to institute them doesn’t work the same way as nouns or verbs. But as Callista mentioned, “they” is a strong contender because it already exists in English and we already commonly use it in singular for persons of unknown gender.
[Reply]
September 10th, 2013 at 12:56 pm |
*Because “twerk” and “selfie” evolved naturally, whereas GNP’s are a conscious decision to amend our language
*Reactionary common sense which hates anything “politically correct”
*Insanely engraved binary thinking where the notion of more then two genders is inherently absurd
[Reply]