Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Is there a non-gender specific word for saying himself (singular)?

TIO · 11-15-2004, 09:49 AM

OK, I'm going to lay this out clearly: 'them', 'they', and 'their' are all plurals. Using any of these terms to refer to a single person is incorrect. The construction 'themself' is simply ridiculous. The 'they/them/their' usage is common enough that it's acceptable in everyday speech, but not in academic writing.
The pronoun 'one' is acceptable, but the term 'one' refers specifically to the writer or the speaker, not to a general member of the population. It's kind of synonomous with 'I' or 'me'. Thus, if I say "The first thing an individual wishes to change, is one's self," I am implying that the first thing any individual wishes to change is TIO's self.

I'm afraid the English language lacks a simple construction for your purpose. If you can't re-word the sentence (I would recommend "and when people become discontent, they want to change is themselves first . . .), you're going to have to bite the bullet and either use the clunky 'him or herself' phrase, or just pick a gender; 'himself' or 'herself' will often suffice, as long as it is reasonably clear that you are not excluding the gender you don't explicitly refer to. For example, let's say I'm writing a paper on an experiments in which a subject must perform a sequence of actions. I'd be happy enough to say 'he will be required to do this' and 'he should not do that' and 'we expect him to do the other', because it should be obvious that female subjects will behave the same way. If gender is irrelevant to your statement, you should get away with just picking a gender. As for which gender to pick, there is some contention. Some say you should pick one gender or another and stick with it; others say you should use different genders in different parts of your paper. That, at least, is a matter of style.

Best bet? If you're at college, your professor probably has a couple of publications to his or her name. Look them up, and try to see what construction is used in them. Otherwise, either just take a guess and hope you don't get marked down for it, or ask your teacher or a librarian at the college. In fact, I probably should have suggested that earlier. Just say you're not sure what the right construction is, and ask whoever will be marking your paper what the correct usage is. If you're writing an essay on Shakespeare, it's likely that it's an English unit/class anyway, so the question could not be more appropriate.

11-15-2004, 09:49 AM	#13 (permalink)
TIO Addict Location: The Land Down Under	OK, I'm going to lay this out clearly: 'them', 'they', and 'their' are all plurals. Using any of these terms to refer to a single person is incorrect. The construction 'themself' is simply ridiculous. The 'they/them/their' usage is common enough that it's acceptable in everyday speech, but not in academic writing. The pronoun 'one' is acceptable, but the term 'one' refers specifically to the writer or the speaker, not to a general member of the population. It's kind of synonomous with 'I' or 'me'. Thus, if I say "The first thing an individual wishes to change, is one's self," I am implying that the first thing any individual wishes to change is TIO's self. I'm afraid the English language lacks a simple construction for your purpose. If you can't re-word the sentence (I would recommend "and when people become discontent, they want to change is themselves first . . .), you're going to have to bite the bullet and either use the clunky 'him or herself' phrase, or just pick a gender; 'himself' or 'herself' will often suffice, as long as it is reasonably clear that you are not excluding the gender you don't explicitly refer to. For example, let's say I'm writing a paper on an experiments in which a subject must perform a sequence of actions. I'd be happy enough to say 'he will be required to do this' and 'he should not do that' and 'we expect him to do the other', because it should be obvious that female subjects will behave the same way. If gender is irrelevant to your statement, you should get away with just picking a gender. As for which gender to pick, there is some contention. Some say you should pick one gender or another and stick with it; others say you should use different genders in different parts of your paper. That, at least, is a matter of style. Best bet? If you're at college, your professor probably has a couple of publications to his or her name. Look them up, and try to see what construction is used in them. Otherwise, either just take a guess and hope you don't get marked down for it, or ask your teacher or a librarian at the college. In fact, I probably should have suggested that earlier. Just say you're not sure what the right construction is, and ask whoever will be marking your paper what the correct usage is. If you're writing an essay on Shakespeare, it's likely that it's an English unit/class anyway, so the question could not be more appropriate. __________________ Strewth