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Animate "They" (was: Pronouns...)

From:Kristian Jensen <kljensen@...>
Date:Monday, June 28, 1999, 12:28
Nik Taylor wrote:
> >Speaking of plurals, is it just me, or does "they" have an animate >"feel" to it. I tend to have a slight preference for "those" >rather than "they" when referring to inanimate objects. Perhaps=20 >it's due to the colloquial usage of "they" as an epicene singular?
Same here. I have also often wondered if the so called grammatical genders of Danish, common and neuter, would not be better termed as animate and inanimate. Common gender is a fusion of proto-Germanic masculine and feminine which both have a very animate 'feel' to them. So like the common gender, 'they' can also be seen as a fusion of masculine and feminine, while 'those', being a demonstrative pronoun, is much like the neuter gender. All this IMHO. ;-) -kristian- 8)