Folly, Part NIne

[terri_testing]

Snape’s life has been a series of spectacular errors of judgment, to put it kindly.

This has to have been his worst.

Chapter Summary:  The headmaster can be very persuasive.

“He certainly knew what was right, nor could she fix on any one article of moral duty evidently transgressed, but yet she would have been afraid to answer for his conduct

Comments

Re: Litigous nerds

[oryx_leucoryx]

Actually they can be singular. From relevant wikipedia page:

They was already being used with a singular antecedent in the Middle English of the 14th century.[14][15] It is found in the writings of many respected authors, including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Thackeray, and Shaw:

"And whoso fyndeth hym out of swich blame,

They wol come up . . ."
-Chaucer, The Pardoner's Prologue (c. 1395);[16] quoted by Jespersen and thence in Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage.[17]

"  '​Tis meet that some more audience than a mother, since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear the speech."- Shakespeare, Hamlet (1599);[18] quoted in Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage.[19]
"If a person is born of a . . . gloomy temper . . . they cannot help it."- Chesterfield, Letter to his son (1759);[20] quoted in Fowler's.[21]
"Now nobody does anything well that they cannot help doing"- Ruskin, The Crown of Wild Olive (1866);[22] quoted in Fowler's.[21]
"Nobody in their senses would give sixpence on the strength of a promissory note of the kind."- Bagehot, The Liberal Magazine (1910);[23] quoted in Fowler's.[24]
"I would have every body marry if they can do it properly."- Austen, Mansfield Park (1814);[25] quoted in Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage.[17]
Caesar: "No, Cleopatra. No man goes to battle to be killed."

Cleopatra: "But they do get killed"
-Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra (1901);[26] quoted in Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage.[19]

"A person can't help their birth."- W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848);[27] quoted in Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage.[17]

Re: Litigous nerds

[jana_ch]

I know. But it still bugs me every time I see it.

Re: Litigous nerds

[oryx_leucoryx]

OTOH I await the day 'they' replaces he and she entirely. Gender is over-emphasized. If the Hungarians and the Chinese manage without the distinction, I don't think we need it as much as we think we do.

Language has rules, but these rules do change over time, by natural usage.

Re: Litigous nerds

[jana_ch]

A language needs people pushing it forward to change with changing needs, and people pulling it back to keep it true to its history. Both are necessary, and I'm one of the pullers-back.

And the problem with 'they' is not gender but number. Terri's 'hir' is useful, but it has no convenient nominative or possessive case. I prefer 'tey/tem/ter', because it has all three cases, and merges easily into the current mis-usage of 'they/them/their.'

But we're hijacking Terri's thread, just when she's given us a wonderful new chapter to enjoy. My apologies, O favored author! I will say no more.

Re: Litigous nerds

[oryx_leucoryx]

I used to use hir and s/he in writing, but no longer do so because not all people identify as male or female. Genderqueer folk are not addressed by the s/he and hir genders. Singular they exists and covers all gender identities without the pronounciation problems caused by Xe/xir or Ze/zir systems.

Re: Litigous nerds

[vermouth1991]

I myself am still trying to adjust to the fact that a lot of genderqueer people aren't feeling comfortable being addressed with the pronoun "they". I guess it's a prejudice I'll have to overcome even if it takes the rest of my life to do so. :( Although I'm not exactly proud of my country's official stance on LGBT (we only just struck homosexuality off the mental illness list in 2001), at least in the language we have one small advantage in that all singular pronouns are pronounced "tā" and all group pronouns as "tā men".

(And now I've really derailed the thread. :P I'll post an actual fic comment as soon as I can.)

Re: Litigous nerds

[oryx_leucoryx]

'They' is for everyone, it doesn't set one group of people aside as different.

Re: Litigous nerds

[vermouth1991]

True, I think I meant to use "he or she" in my previous post. I have so much radical stuff to learn! Almost makes me afraid to speak to other people anymore.

ETA And now I'm having thoughts about individualism vs. collectivism...