6.0640 Rs: 'They'; Proverbs; Illogicalities (4/68)

Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Fri, 2 Apr 1993 15:42:04 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0640. Friday, 2 Apr 1993.


(1) Date: 01 Apr 1993 13:01:56 -0700 (MST) (17 lines)
From: DIANA PATTERSON <DPATTERSON@mtroyal.ab.ca>
Subject: The Genderless They

(2) Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 12:06:29 -0800 (PST) (17 lines)
From: Paul Pascal <paulpasc@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Genderless singular 'They'

(3) Date: Fri, 02 Apr 93 10:24:16 BST (20 lines)
From: DEL2@phx.cam.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [6.0634 And More Proverbs (2/32)]

(4) Date: Fri, 2 Apr 93 11:42:08 BST (14 lines)
From: frsfwl <F.W.Langley@frd.hull.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Illogicalities

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 01 Apr 1993 13:01:56 -0700 (MST)
From: DIANA PATTERSON <DPATTERSON@mtroyal.ab.ca>
Subject: The Genderless They

I would like to put in a dissenting voice, here. I do not care much about the
genderless quality of "they", but I care desperately about its number. When
students refer to Someone who dropped their parcels, they often continute
discussion in the plural. The students forget whom it is they are talking
about. This raises some important issues, especially in court rooms, where
many of my students expect to end up. I often tell them that a wiley lawyer
could bring them quickly to their knees on the witness stand by pointing out
that they seem to have been so drunk that they were unable to tell if one
person or more were doing a deed.
I consider that encouraging such mathematical errors is immoral.
Diana Patterson
Mount Royal College
DPatterson@MtRoyal.AB.CA
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------31----
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 1993 12:06:29 -0800 (PST)
From: Paul Pascal <paulpasc@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Genderless singular 'They'

Surely the *ne plus ultra* with regard to the genderless singular 'they'
is a remark attributed to Yogi Berra (reliably, of course). He reported to
a teammate that there had been some excitement--a streaker during a game.
When asked whether it was a man or a woman, Yogi is said to have replied,
"I don't know, they had a bag over their head."

Paul Pascal
Professor Emeritus, Classics DH-10
University of Washington / Seattle WA 98195
paulpasc@u.washington.edu



(3) --------------------------------------------------------------31----
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 93 10:24:16 BST
From: DEL2@phx.cam.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [6.0634 And More Proverbs (2/32)]

Anent "I'm starving of cold" (Alan Corre's contribution recently),
my Yorkshire grandmother used to say simply "I'm starved" meaning
"I'm frozen". Is this a later or earlier development?
And an Irish sister-in-law once caused great embarrasment when
at the offer a drink she replied "I'm just after having one";
which was heard as "That's why I came" but meant "No thank
you I have just had one".

"Feed a cold and starve a fever", even as an implied conditional,
is still ambiguous: "[If it is true that you should] feed a cold,
[it is also true that you should] starve a fever"--that's the way
to heal them; versus "[If you] feed a cold, [you will subsequently
have to] starve a [resultant] fever". Any doctors in the group able
to arbitrate?

Regards, Douglas de Lacey, Cambridge.
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------28----
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 93 11:42:08 BST
From: frsfwl <F.W.Langley@frd.hull.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Illogicalities

The humour of Blake Spahr's story about Pierre Laval has nothing to do with
an Alsatian accent: Laval was from the Auvergne, where an "s" sound is
pronounced as a "sh". Whence another story, referring to the time when
many of the (usually down-market) Parisian cafes were owned/run by
Auvergnats: a well-dressed lady, collecting money for the charitable works
of the diocese, enters such a cafe holding her collecting-box and says to
the "bougnat" (as these Auvergnat cafe proprietors were called): "C'est
pour l'eveche" [i.e *eyveychey*, diocese]. The "bougnat" replies: "Les
veches ["veycheys"] chont dans le chou-chol" (or in standard French, "Les
WCs sont dans le sou-sol"), much to the lady's embarrassment.