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Re: SAA in 1937



Just like everything else, there's a right way and a wrong way to handle
inclusive language. I've always been driven to distraction by inclusive
language used as an unthinking reflex. I used to worship at an extremely
liberal parish that took the concept of inclusive language to ridiculous
extremes - not so much ridiculous in what they did as in how they did it.
Apparently, not a whole lot of thought was given to context, readability or
how the end product sounded to hearers; instead, male pronouns were replaced
with gender-neutral language at every turn without altering anything else to
accomodate the change, be it from singular to plural or what have you. Many
of the resulting sentences in the readings and liturgy would have flunked
any competent English class for poor grammar and sentence structure. They
even managed to introduce a couple of blatant theological errors at one
point when no one bothered to consider the implications of substituting
certain inclusive words in particaular passages about the Trinity.

I'm all for being sensitive to others, but not at the expense of
intellectual integrity and intelligible communications. If we're going to do
it, let's do it right without lapsing into grade school grammar and sentence
structure.

Best wishes,

Thomas Berry, Archivist
Historical Construction Equipment Association
16623 Liberty Hi Road
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
Phone 419-352-5616
Fax 419-352-6086
tberry@hcea.net
http://www.hcea.net



----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Kurilecz" <pakurilecz@AOL.COM>
To: <ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2002 3:44 PM
Subject: Re: SAA in 1937


> On Sat, 5 Jan 2002 13:23:03 -0500, David A. Wallace <davwal@UMICH.EDU>
> wrote:
>
>
> >Decent people can of course disagree on such issues. However, the
> >tenor of the comments I am responding to do little to provide value to
> >their cause. While they may give some the opportunity to snicker at the
> >cheap put down -- they really do little to advance an adult dialogue that
> >one would hope to see on a professioanl listserv -- best regards - David
> >A. Wallace
>
> What I find  sad is that we are discussing whether or not the use of the
> word "he" in a 1937 document is correct or not. I agree with Nick Gilliam
> the use of the term 'he' is all inconclusive.
>
> The nice thing about the English language is that in many cases words are
> gender neutral. Most other languages in the world assign a gender either
> male, female or neutral, but not English.
>
> I am always amused when an organization announces that "Chairperson Jane
> Jones has...." while another organization will announce that "Chairman Bob
> Jones has..."
>
> Let us hope that in the end Roy Webb will deign to provide us with an
> insider's view of the Winter Olympics from the Beehive State.
>
>
> Peter Kurilecz
> pakurilecz@aol.com
>
> A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
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> Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>
>

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>