When I was young, it was perfectly OK for people in the southern part of the United States to refer to “colored people.”
Of course, this stopped in the 1960’s. (It is now very offensive.)
But guess what!
It is now perfectly OK to refer to “people of color.” In fact, many people of color themselves use that term!
I guess this change in acceptability occurs in all languages. I remember reading that there was a term for “China” in the Japanese language that is now considered offensive by the people in China.
James
P.S. I think (repeat: think) that you should have said:
“Offense is so easily TAKEN” (by people of various groups).
Hello, James,
If you meant that I should’ve rephraised the original sentence, I refuse, as it was said by a lady famous for her innovative approach to learning grammar (whose name you so generously shared with us).
Kidding aside, I wouldn’t be ashamed to say, “Everyone should have HER book.”
Not stealing someone’s show, just a couple of quotations: “If you give offense, it might be your own fault. Offending someone too strongly isn’t polite, and some people take offense quite easily. Around such people, you should be very careful with your wording to minimize offense.”
“I apologise for any offence given but…”
This thread began with a particular question, but has digressed. I wish each thread had a different subject! However, I would like to post my view on the second point here:
Everyone [color=red] who is present here and [color=red]who knows whether what [color=red]they say is what [color=red]they mean [color=red]is requested to remain in [color=red]their seats. (Controversial)
Everyone [color=red]who are present here and [color=red]who know whether what [color=red]they say is what [color=red]they mean [color=red]are requested to remain in [color=red]their seats. (Debatable)
The speaker/writer is constrained to be deliberately inconsistent with the subject and the verb in the same single sentence (1). This, in my view, is an absurd situation.
We need to discuss and decide as to how well we can address this problem. The possible solution could be to invent a new word which will mean ‘he’/’she’ or assign this meaning also to the word ‘they’.
Then, of course, another question might arise as to the treatment of that word and its cases as singular or plural. A Gordian knot, indeed!
I think using ‘they’ and ‘their’ instead of ‘he/she’ and ‘his/her’ is perfectly OK and I don’t see the need to invent a new word. Even if I saw that need it wouldn’t happen anyway ;-)[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: Pushing a car[YSaerTTEW443543]
I fear you are making a mountain out of a molehill. English can cope with this impersonal ‘they/their’ construction. Most people don’t find it a problem. Everyone takes it in their stride. You can hear people being interviewed and when they stick to the ‘he/she - his / her - him/her’ pattern, they tend to fall over their feet and this detracts fom what they are saying.
You may or may not be aware that this issue in English of the lack of a gender-neutral singular personal pronoun has generated, and continues to generate, volumes of debate (I mean generally, not specifically on this forum). There have been a number of serious attempts to invent new words, but English is extremely resistant to pronoun innovations and none has caught on.