For those who have made it until finals week:
If you want to improve your grade a little and can still use 10 points extra credit (only if you haven't reached your limit of 25 points per semester yet!), you're welcome to post a 500-700 words SUMMARY AND RESPONSE about the following article on "he/she" by Professor George Jochnowitz, who wrote our favorite article, "Everyone Likes Pizza, Doesn't He or She?"
Be very clear and concise in your summary; show that you have understood the article. Then, use critical thinking and write down your own thoughts about the topic!
First, I would like to start off saying that this was a very interesting article. The author addressed the issue of he/she being misused in everyday language. The author also goes over all the different aspects of this grammatical area. There is a grammatical error spoken or written everday because of the inconsistant knowledge of these constant errors. This can be applied to students and class rooms, from errors in newspapers, to everyday conversations.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this article because it dealt with an isue that I was unfamiliar with. Before this article I too had this problem of not using these words correctly. This article can be very beneficial to people of all ages because it helps you speak correctly and use proper grammar. I believe that after reading this everyone will be aware as well as develop a better understanding of the the subject at hand. As I stated earlier this was a great article.
In the article He/She, the author distinguishes the differences between he and she and how these pronouns are used in sentences. In this case, them is referred to a person or group and he/she is referred to an individual. For English native speakers, we do not know when to use the right form because we think it sounds correct. The use of He or She as a compound pronoun also has become increasingly frequent in recent years. With this being said a study was created for the following classes which were a composition class for ESL students, an undergraduate linguistics course, and a graduate course in sociolinguistics to put there test to knowledge on distinguishing the differences of certain grammatical errors. The problem nowadays with teachers teaching students with grammar is that they make them believe that whatever sounds right in a sentence is correct when really it is not. The word they is another grammar error that seems to get students confused. The word they is always used with a plural verb and is usually plural in meaning. It is not plural, however, an example given in the reading states that in sentences such as: "Have they come to fix the leak?" This example states that although the word may sound right in context the word placed in the sentence is incorrect.Handbooks, until recently, advocated the use of he with indefinite antecedents. Instead, he or she most students replace the word with "they" What is important to remember when reading this article is that when we turn our attention to how we speak the language, we must also try to listen to how English is actually spoken and not let assumptions about how it should be spoken get in the way. Which is what most grammar students should take account of.When we are describing when we should use a world in a sentence we should place two notions on how we should take that approach one is A descriptive approach which is one that attempts to describe actual language use. Next is, a prescriptive approach which is one that expresses a certain dissatisfaction with language use in general and even the language.In this article another study was conducted by Thomas Nunnally, who explains that there is a difference between nominal-force gerunds and verbal-force gerunds who has explained the reality of a descriptive rule that had been faced by an incorrect prescriptive rule. Most of these errors being done based on this excerpt is relying on students who are being taught the criteria by which the blame would have to be the teachers. Lastly, it is issued that the words he or she should be correctly used over the word they when we use a sentence for these typical words. With all means instead of replacing singular "they", he or she just simply replace "they" in formal usage.
ReplyDeleteThe author starts out the article by stating that, as speakers of the English language, we have never known which pronouns to choose when referring to nouns of undetermined gender. The author states that they was once common wit singular antecedents. But the use of he or she as a compound pronoun has become increasingly more frequent. This showed in one of her classes. When he students were confronted with the question, is this sentence correct, and it contained his or her instead of they. Most of the students answered that the sentence as indeed correct. Whether or not they would use that in a sentence independently we don’t know, but they did answer that it was correct.
ReplyDeleteNext, the author talks about the use of they with agentless passives. For example, when did THEY open the bridge? We don’t know who they are, but it is still used. Rather than recomposing the sentence like this: When was the bridge opened? From there, the author goes on to talk a little bit about how we made the transition. It is partly due to the feminist movement. Instead of using HE, it was changed to HE or SHE to incorporate both sexes, and in turn it carried on into plural pronouns as well. So even if they is the correct answer, it has changed to where most people would still use HE or SHE for the plural pronoun. The author sums up his article by stating that HE or SHE has a political advantage over THEY. And the attack against the gender biased HE actually turned out to be an attack against the unmarked THEY.
I thought this article was fairly interesting. I have actually had discussions with friends, and others about the use of HE or SHE. I agree with the author when he says that feminism is partly responsible for it. I had a feminist teacher in grade school, and she always used HE or SHE when reading or writing something. She would never use HE or just SHE, it would always be HE or SHE. Personally I don’t see a problem with using he in a sentence. I don’t feel that it is gender biased towards women. I just feel that if it is a singular pronoun, then he is more commonly used.