All linguists know that there are plenty of examples of languages in which personal pronouns don't distinguish gender, including Chinese. I have a visitor these days, a friend from Taiwan, and he can reliably confuse "he" and "she" in English (for example, by talking about his wife but then saying "he" or by talking about his son and then saying "she") because he, like most native speakers of Sinitic languages, fundamentally doesn't see a need to distinguish gender in personal pronouns.
I've been an editor enough years to know that "they" is not accepted as a pronoun referring to an antecedent in the singular number in standard written English, but I sure SPEAK English that way, and observe plenty of other native speakers of English speaking that way or even writing that way. I've also been around enough radical feminists to know that they think "he" is offensive as a general reference to an unknown person, even though that is the typical default in Indo-European languages (equivalents to "it" are disfavored because they imply the antecedent is not animate). I often structure sentences so that the sentences don't have personal pronouns, when I think my readership might take offense at nonstandard grammar or at "sexist" language. An astute observer of human society might notice that languages without gender in personal pronouns don't seem particularly to occur in societies without sexism, so perhaps an assumption that "sexist" language makes any kind of difference in people's behavior is unwarranted. The strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
appears to be discredited, but research continues on the marginal effects on people's thinking that may result from accidental grammatical features of different native languages.
I've been an editor enough years to know that "they" is not accepted as a pronoun referring to an antecedent in the singular number in standard written English
Why not? As you pointed out, it's how you and many others speak. The only reason it persists in being "incorrect" is because it is deemed so. None of the alternatives I've seen seem particularly better, and indeed often worse. Can't we let English grow in this direction?
I expect English will grow in that direction. Most professional editors eventually follow established usage of the best writers, as evidenced by the best dictionaries and usage guides.
"...because he, like most native speakers of Sinitic languages, fundamentally doesn't see a need to distinguish gender in personal pronouns."
I'm not sure that's correct. In Mandarin the word for he, she and it is "ta" but the written characters in all three cases are different. There is a distinction; your friends mixture of using he and she is more likely to be similar to the confusion felt by English speakers learning French for example and having to distinguish between using la and le.
In frequent interaction with native Mandarin speakers, I'll vouch for the first statement: mistaking 'he' and 'she', 'him' and 'her' is easily the most common mistake I hear.
The character is different, sure, but the female ta (她) is a relatively recent linguistic invention. I'm not sure about the inanimate ta (它) but I imagine a similar story. In casual speech there is really little distinction. If someone needs to clarify, they tend to use 女 and 男.
The character is different, sure, but the female ta (她) is a relatively recent linguistic invention. I'm not sure about the inanimate ta (它) but I imagine a similar story.
Yes, drawing such a distinction in written Chinese is based on imitation of European languages and has been standard in school instruction for not more than a century.
Comments
All linguists know that there are plenty of examples of languages in which personal pronouns don't distinguish gender, including Chinese. I have a visitor these days, a friend from Taiwan, and he can reliably confuse "he" and "she" in English (for example, by talking about his wife but then saying "he" or by talking about his son and then saying "she") because he, like most native speakers of Sinitic languages, fundamentally doesn't see a need to distinguish gender in personal pronouns.
I've been an editor enough years to know that "they" is not accepted as a pronoun referring to an antecedent in the singular number in standard written English, but I sure SPEAK English that way, and observe plenty of other native speakers of English speaking that way or even writing that way. I've also been around enough radical feminists to know that they think "he" is offensive as a general reference to an unknown person, even though that is the typical default in Indo-European languages (equivalents to "it" are disfavored because they imply the antecedent is not animate). I often structure sentences so that the sentences don't have personal pronouns, when I think my readership might take offense at nonstandard grammar or at "sexist" language. An astute observer of human society might notice that languages without gender in personal pronouns don't seem particularly to occur in societies without sexism, so perhaps an assumption that "sexist" language makes any kind of difference in people's behavior is unwarranted. The strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_hypothesis
appears to be discredited, but research continues on the marginal effects on people's thinking that may result from accidental grammatical features of different native languages.
I've been an editor enough years to know that "they" is not accepted as a pronoun referring to an antecedent in the singular number in standard written English
Why not? As you pointed out, it's how you and many others speak. The only reason it persists in being "incorrect" is because it is deemed so. None of the alternatives I've seen seem particularly better, and indeed often worse. Can't we let English grow in this direction?
I expect English will grow in that direction. Most professional editors eventually follow established usage of the best writers, as evidenced by the best dictionaries and usage guides.
Sapir-Whorf has recently had a resurgence, with the most prominent being the work of Lera Boroditsky:
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~lera/papers/
"...because he, like most native speakers of Sinitic languages, fundamentally doesn't see a need to distinguish gender in personal pronouns."
I'm not sure that's correct. In Mandarin the word for he, she and it is "ta" but the written characters in all three cases are different. There is a distinction; your friends mixture of using he and she is more likely to be similar to the confusion felt by English speakers learning French for example and having to distinguish between using la and le.
In frequent interaction with native Mandarin speakers, I'll vouch for the first statement: mistaking 'he' and 'she', 'him' and 'her' is easily the most common mistake I hear.
The character is different, sure, but the female ta (她) is a relatively recent linguistic invention. I'm not sure about the inanimate ta (它) but I imagine a similar story. In casual speech there is really little distinction. If someone needs to clarify, they tend to use 女 and 男.
The character is different, sure, but the female ta (她) is a relatively recent linguistic invention. I'm not sure about the inanimate ta (它) but I imagine a similar story.
Yes, drawing such a distinction in written Chinese is based on imitation of European languages and has been standard in school instruction for not more than a century.