• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    So that means that’s the best way for it to work in the future? Having a distinction between singular and plural is useful, so why *not adjust our language and repurpose the not useful gendered pronouns?

    • Flying SquidOP
      link
      English
      110 months ago

      No one said you can’t use gendered pronouns.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        110 months ago

        I understand that, my point is that they’re not useful. Or at least it would be much more useful to have a singular and a plural pronoun, because that distinction is more relevant to modern speech.

        • Flying SquidOP
          link
          English
          110 months ago

          Language is as useful as people make it and people have been happy to use the singular ‘they’ along with gendered pronouns for centuries. I don’t see the issue.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            110 months ago

            You could use a similar argument to stop literally any innovation. Things don’t have to be an issue to be able to be improved.

            • Flying SquidOP
              link
              English
              110 months ago

              Language isn’t about innovation unless it is an artificial language. People don’t choose their words based on what is innovative.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                110 months ago

                Are we not intelligent enough to make language whatever we want it to be? We actually do that all the time with political correctness and ungendering words like policeman.

                • Flying SquidOP
                  link
                  English
                  110 months ago

                  “We” are not under any obligation to make language whatever you want it to be.

                  Again, most people have no problem with the singular ‘they.’ You do. Why should they change to accommodate you?

                  • @[email protected]
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    110 months ago

                    I’m not obligating anything or asking for any accommodation. I’m trying to make an argument for a better system than what we currently have, whereas you just seem to be saying ‘change is stupid’.