Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-22 Thread Andrew Suffield
On Sat, Aug 21, 2004 at 10:22:18PM +0200, Miriam Ruiz wrote: > Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Heh heh. Heh heh. Heh heh. He said "manus". Heh heh. > > Don't laugh. If you have something to say, well, say > it. Laughing is not an argument. What, have you never watched "Beavis and B

Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-22 Thread Andrew Suffield
On Sun, Aug 22, 2004 at 11:25:22AM +1000, Ben Burton wrote: > > > Come on, the only possible conclusion of this line of reasoning is > > that communication between two people is impossible. > > Not at all. Humans communicated quite successfully long before > dictionaries or grammarians came abou

Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-21 Thread Ben Burton
> Come on, the only possible conclusion of this line of reasoning is > that communication between two people is impossible. Not at all. Humans communicated quite successfully long before dictionaries or grammarians came about. A large portion of one's vocabulary is learned through a mixture of

Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-21 Thread Miriam Ruiz
Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Heh heh. Heh heh. Heh heh. He said "manus". Heh heh. Don't laugh. If you have something to say, well, say it. Laughing is not an argument. > Come on, the only possible conclusion of this line > of reasoning is > that communication between two people is

Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-21 Thread Jutta Wrage
Am Samstag, 21.08.04 um 16:33 Uhr schrieb Ben Burton: "mankind" has a similar problem, since it can be easily perceived as "man" + "kind" (whether this be at a conscious or subconscious level). Man or German Mann have the origin in words for men (indogermanic languages) "human" (or "human

Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-21 Thread Andrew Suffield
On Sun, Aug 22, 2004 at 12:33:39AM +1000, Ben Burton wrote: > > > Interestingly enough, "humanity" has "man" in it too, but like > > "mankind", its origins have nothing to do with gender. > > FWIW, perception is not based on etymology. > > "chairman" is treated as gender-specific because it is

Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-21 Thread Ben Burton
> Interestingly enough, "humanity" has "man" in it too, but like > "mankind", its origins have nothing to do with gender. FWIW, perception is not based on etymology. "chairman" is treated as gender-specific because it is easily read as "chair" + "man", i.e., the man leading the organisation. W

Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-21 Thread Wesley J Landaker
On Saturday 21 August 2004 00:56, Christian Perrier wrote: > > "The world is made up of both men and women. Please use > > gender-neutral constructs in your writing. This is not Political > > Correctness, this is showing respect to all mankind." > > > > And in fact, I'd like to lose "mankind", too

Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-21 Thread Christian Perrier
> It's because it contains "man". In modern English "mankind" is often > percieved as having an emphasis on men and a corresponding demphasis on OK, I understand. We have some similar issues in French. Not for "mankind" directly though we often speak about "l'Homme" when it comes at speaking a

Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-21 Thread Helen Faulkner
Hi Christian, Christian Perrier wrote: "The world is made up of both men and women. Please use gender-neutral constructs in your writing. This is not Political Correctness, this is showing respect to all mankind." And in fact, I'd like to lose "mankind", too, and replace it with "humanity" or

Re: Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-21 Thread Christian Perrier
Quoting Helen Faulkner ([EMAIL PROTECTED]): > "The world is made up of both men and women. Please use gender-neutral > constructs in your writing. This is not Political Correctness, this is > showing respect to all people." Done. Thanks to you all again.

Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-21 Thread Christian Perrier
> > "The world is made of men and women. Please use gender-neutral > > constructions in your writing. This is not political correctness, this > > is respect towards half of the mankind." > > /me points quietly at the last word of the paragraph... /me will use his bad English knowledge as an ex

Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-21 Thread Christian Perrier
> "The world is made up of both men and women. Please use gender-neutral > constructs in your writing. This is not Political Correctness, this is > showing respect to all mankind." > > And in fact, I'd like to lose "mankind", too, and replace it with > "humanity" or "people". Is this because i

Re: Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-20 Thread Helen Faulkner
Hi again Christian, I am ashamed to note that I suggested something that is grammatically wrong in my own language. Where was my brain when I wrote that!? (that's a rhetorical question) Peter's suggestion is the best, namely: "The world is made up of both men and women. Please use gender-n

Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-20 Thread Ben Burton
> I think that is slightly misleading, in that a construction where the > gender of the user is implied can't really be neutral. A better way to > phrase it could be something like this: > > "The world is made of men and women. Please use gender-neutral > constructions in your writing. This i

Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-20 Thread Christian Perrier
> "The world is made of men and women. Please use gender-neutral > constructions in your writing. This is not political correctness, this > is respect towards half of the mankind." Thanks, Helen. You're absolutely right, my original sentence was a bit strange. I used your proposal in the new o

Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-20 Thread Peter Whysall
On Fri, 20 Aug 2004 08:27:28 +0100, Helen Faulkner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I think that is slightly misleading, in that a construction where the > gender of the user is implied can't really be neutral. A better way to > phrase it could be something like this: > > "The world is made of men a

Re: Proofreading of a part of a document about "gender neutrality"

2004-08-20 Thread Helen Faulkner
Hello Christian, all, Thanks very much for doing this. You have certainly noticed that I'm not a native English speaker, so this paragraph may be badly written. I'm also not completely sure if the way I have chosen for explaining this was right and thus I need input from people more familiar w