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Summary

Many people are not sure whether to use traditional or neutral terms. The large number of mixed examples implies that people do not just disagree with each other, but that individuals are unsure how best to express themselves. Additionally, many defenders of male terms do not appeal to tradition or claim that the term is neutral, but they say that the generic person would probably be male. Thus, an empirical rather than theoretical criterion is used, suggesting that the pronoun would change if enough females entered the computer world.



Ellen Spertus
Sat Jan 28 18:40:31 EST 1995