Re: Epicene pronoun in english?

From:    Joe <joe@...>
> Thomas R. Wier wrote:
> > From:    And Rosta <a.rosta@...>
> > > I don't know whether all the epicene
> > > pronoun fuss is due simply to prescriptivism or whether there
> > > is genuinely a dialect difference with AmE here, such that AmE
> > > lacks the BrE solution. (It's hard to tell, what with AmE
> > > being so much more prescriptivist in the first place.)
> >
> > I'm just curious:  on what grounds are you making this
> > assertion? Have you noticed that American students of
> > yours are more likely to make reference to standards of
> > language use than your British students?  (This is not
> > to say that one cannot make generalizations about cultures,
> > but I wonder whether you have actually looked at some
> > empirical data on this which I have not myself seen.)
>
> No, he meant that AmE doesn't have singular 'they' in standard speech.
I was questioning his generalization about American English being
"so much more prescriptivist" than British English.  After all,
the Plain English Campaign (a form of prescriptivism) is centered
in Britain, not the US.  It's simply not obvious to me that American
English is more prescriptivist than British English is, and I was
asking of him on what grounds he made that claim.

Besides which, lots and lots of Americans have singular 'they'
in their speech.  Me, for example.

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637