Some Notes on Gender-Neutral Language

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Unit 6

• Some Notes on Gender-Neutral Language

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• General
• Two Examples
• The Solving
  Ways

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• male-centered
• patriarchal society
• Like any other language, however, English is
  always changing.
• Readers expectation

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• In addition, we need to know how the shifting
  natural of language can make certain words
  awkward or misleading.
• So , here are two examples---Man and He.

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About man

• The time of Anglo-Saxons
• The 18th century
• In
  modern time

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• Anglo-Saxons(???????/???)
• refer to Old English
• One example an Anglo-Saxon writer referred to a
  seventh-century English princess as a wonderful
  man
• manthe Latin word homo
• a member of the human
  species not vir an adult male of the species

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In old English

• Waepman -----man
• man continued to be used in
  generalizations about both sexes.
• Wifman-----woman

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• By the 18th century, the modern, narrow sense of
  man which refers to adult male human being was
  firmly established as the predominant one.
• Some examples in that period can certificate it.

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• Such a deplorable havoc is made in the minds of
  men (both sexes) in France
• ---The French
  Revolution
• Edmund Burke
• All men are created equal
• Governments are instituted among men
  deriving their just powers from the consent of
  the governed.
• ---Tomas Jefferson

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In modern dictionaries

• the definition that links man with males is
  the predominant

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The first grammars of modern English

• It were written in the 16th and 17th centuries in
  order to help boys from the upper class prepare
  for the study of Latin.
• Key word sex-inclusive male culture dominance
  male-centered world view

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They to He

• 1850 Act of Parliament
• The failure of the female physicians attempt to
  be admitted into the all male Massachusetts
  Medical Society
• (ignored)

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Pronoun Problem

• A doctor is a busy person he must be able to
  balance a million obligations at once-men
• Dr. Jones is no exception he has a clinic to
  run, medical students to supervise, and a husband
  with polio.-woman
• The average American needs the small routines
  of getting ready for work. As he shaves or
  blow-dries his hair or pulls on his panty hose,
  he is easing himself by small stages into the
  demands of the day.-woman

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Solving the Pronoun Problem

• took they as an example
• If you love someone, set them free.Sting
• Its enough to drive anyone out of their
  sensesGeorge Bernard Shaw
• I shouldnt like to punish anyone, even if
  theyd done me wrongGeorge Eliot
• They is used as a singular

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• Here are four ways
• He or She
• Pluralizing---A writer can often recast
  material in the plural.
• Eliminating Pronouns---Avoid having to use
  pronouns at all.
• Further Alternatives---he/she or s/he,
  using one instead of he.