From: Colin Hales (colin@versalog.com.au)
Date: Mon Mar 04 2002 - 17:08:44 MST
Miriam English wrote
> At 05:13 AM 05/03/2002, Colin Hales wrote:
>
> >"I taught him/her to think for himself/herself yesterday but
> when I asked
> >him/her he/she had forgotten" becomes
> >"I taught lem to think for leirself yesterday but when I
> asked lem ley had
> >forgotten"
> >(note the new 'i before e except after c and possibly l?' :)
> The technical
> >term for this whole thing is, I think, Yuck).
>
> What is wrong with:
> I taught them to think for theirself yesterday but when I
> asked them they had forgotten.
Nothing, it works -but- to me it's not enough - too impersonal for all
occasions.
It's the subjective level of intimacy in the sentence. In vocalising,
sometimes the de-personalising doesn't feel right, for some reason,
depending on the context.
Colin
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