Author: Lisi Date: To: Hampshire LUG Discussion List Subject: Re: [Hampshire] Linux Foundation and Linux Certification Programs
On Thursday 28 October 2010 17:57:35 Keith Edmunds wrote: > gender neutral
> third person singular possessive pronoun. Maybe I should have said, "that
> no one in its right mind would want to work for..."
I still maintain that the common gender in the case of humanity is the same as
the masculine. "Ducks" includes "drakes" and "dogs" includes "bitches". In
the same way, the generic "man" includes "woman". Madame Chairman is
correct, Madame Chairwoman is just about tolerable (but only just), and
Madame Chair is intolerable. I am *not* a piece of furniture!! So here I
would prefer "no-one in his right mind...", or at a stretch no-one in his/her
right mind. I think that in 50 to a hundred years "their" will have become
singular just as "you" has, but I don't think we are there yet.
> As for "no one" or "no-one" or "noone", my (somewhat dated) copy of
> Fowler's Modern English Usage suggests that "no one" is preferred.
Chambers 20th Century says that no one means no single (but maybe some
twins?), where the context suggests that the meaning is "nemo" - not anybody
at all, not even some twins.
We should clearly set up pistols at dawn for the two dictionaries. ;-)
