New Fix To The Pronoun Problem: `Hu' Latest Substitute For `He,' And `She'

[iansales]

You use the correct verb form. For example,

- the doctor has bought a new car
- what sort of car did they buy?

[iansales]

Has anyone pointed out that "hu" is a particularly poor choice... as Hugh (or Huw) is a man's name. Unless it's pronounced hoo... which would just make you sound like a demented owl.

[scalem X]

Hu is also the name of the Chinese president. That was my first impression.

[lin robinson]

And, when you decide that your "they" is singular, do you associate it with the singular form of the verb (they is) or accept its inherent plurality?

Interesting. It's a peculiarity of English to refer to people as objects in certain contexts.
"It's me" or "It is I" What is the it doing there. In most languages I'm familiar with it would be more like the SPanish "Soy yo", not "Es yo"

Same way with "Oh, it's Bill" "Is it you?" etc.

[scalem X]

Isn't that just some part of a larger conversation and having the expression remained without the circumstances?

like:
(*sound of knocking on the door*)
-What's that noice?
-Oh, it is Bill (the noice is Bill=Bill made the noice)

It's the same in German and Dutch, so I guess it's the difference between romanic languages and Germanic languages here, Lin.

[Curt Chiarelli]

Why don't we refer to everyone as "it". That way everyone will be equally offended! This should appease the P.C. Gestapo.

[HappyHippo]

good solution!

In Mary Gentle's Orthe books, the children of the species (sorry, it's late, brain disfunction) are all gender neutral until puberty when it goes one way or the other. Until then they are ke (he/she) or kir (they/his/her). It doesn't half make tiring reading!

Political correctness is inane and self-serving. And if we just need to invent gender neutral terms, I'm sure my eight year old could come up with something more appropriate than 'hu'. Academics....*head shaking*

[pyan]

Originally Posted by Curt Chiarelli

Why don't we refer to everyone as "it". That way everyone will be equally offended! This should appease the P.C. Gestapo.

Lois Bujold uses "it" for hermaphrodites - presumably they would object to single-sexers hi-jacking the term!

[dustinzgirl]

The problem is:

It's got a malfunction.
He's got a malfunction.
She's got a malfunction.

Would that be it is got a malfunction, its got a malfunction, or he/she has got a malfunction?

It would get confusing.

[lin robinson]

"Hu's on first.
I thought hu was on second.
No, hu moved to third.
Then whose hu is on who's first?
Left field!"

[lin robinson]

Know what sucks, is that solutions to grammatical deficiencies that arise from the people who use the language, like "aint" and "y'all" and "youse" get ostracized and declared non-legitimate...while some idiocy like this or the many non-gender pronoun freakshows get taken seriously.

[dustinzgirl]

Originally Posted by lin robinson

Know what sucks, is that solutions to grammatical deficiencies that arise from the people who use the language, like "aint" and "y'all" and "youse" get ostracized and declared non-legitimate...while some idiocy like this or the many non-gender pronoun freakshows get taken seriously.

yep. I use those words a lot.

[pyan]

And those words ain't all slangy anyway: Ain't first appears in the 1750s, and is used by Lewis Carroll in Alice through the Looking Glass....

[Michael01]

Sheesh, yet another reason for me to be critical of my daft fellow Americans. The Brits have obviously got the right idea - make singular "they" grammatically correct! It can't be much easier than that. Until then, however, I'll continue to write in awkward manner that is acceptable here - as annoying as it is.

And yeah, I'm just as daft and nonsensical as most other Americans ... (I had to say "most," because there is a very rare breed of Yanks aren't too bad ... I, uh, think ... hope ...)

Hu? Huh?

EDIT: Besides, language evolves, right? And usually through usage by the people who speak it, not the academics who think they can make up words for convenience's sake. "Ain't" is a good example. It may still be ostracized now, but in the future will likely be considered correct usage in American English. There are just too many people using it for this not to happen.

At least, that's my take on it, anyway.

[lin robinson]

[QUOTEThe argument is in replacing it when the sex is unknown.[/quote]

ALWAYS a problem. I ran into one of those "sex unknown" things in Tijuana last year and it still creeps me out.

(Hu was a 'ho')