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Cake day: June 19th, 2023

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  • rah@feddit.uktoComic Strips@lemmy.worldThey/Them
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    4 hours ago

    There’s no way to know whether the “he” is Dan or Steve.

    Your example sentence is always ambiguous because there is only one sense of the word “he” but two possible objects. My example sentence is always ambiguous because there are two senses of the word “they”. The two situations are completely different linguistic issues.

    Your example is of a poor speaker. My example is of a poor pronoun choice.

    The they/them pronoun isn’t the problem in your example, the structure of the sentence is.

    I disagree entirely.




  • rah@feddit.uktoComic Strips@lemmy.worldThey/Them
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    21 hours ago

    You’re going out of your way to create a problem that doesn’t exist.

    The problem does exist, that’s why you’re making suggestions about how to work around the problem. I’ve been confused before by people using “they” as a pronoun in exactly this sense. I’m not going out of my way to create a problem, it’s a problem that I’ve experienced IRL. Please don’t try to invalidate my experience.

    If you just don’t respect people’s identity then admit you’re bigoted instead of hiding behind faulty logic.

    You’re jump to conclusions.





  • rah@feddit.uktoComic Strips@lemmy.worldThey/Them
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    1 day ago

    “I was with Dan (they/them) and Steve the other day. They hadn’t brought a poster they needed and went back to the car to get it.”

    This demonstrates the semantic problem with using “they” as a pronoun: it isn’t clear who went back to the car, (1) just Dan or (2) both Dan and Steve. Nor is it clear who needed the poster and who hadn’t brought it.