[0/4] Use singular "they" when appropriate

Message

Phillip Wood via GitGitGadget June 7, 2021, 4:57 p.m. UTC

In another topic, I claimed [1] that singular "they" was better than
"he/she" for gender neutrality.

[1]
https://lore.kernel.org/git/[e-mail]/

The fact that singular "they" is less awkward to write and read seemed
obvious to me, so I did not back up my statement with any references or
reasons. The ensuing discussion did include reasons, especially brian m.
carlson's thoughtful message [2].

[2] https://lore.kernel.org/git/[e-mail]/

This patch series officially adopts singular "they" as a contributor
guideline; see Patch 4 for the change to the guidelines and the reasoning
for the change. Before modifying the guidelines, documentation and comments
are updated to not use gendered pronouns, which provides examples of how to
use it.

I would appreciate ACKs in support on patch 4.

Thanks, -Stolee

Derrick Stolee (4):
  Documentation: use singular they when appropriate
  *: use singular they in comments
  *: fix typos
  CodingGuidelines: recommend singular they

 Documentation/CodingGuidelines                |  5 +++
 Documentation/SubmittingPatches               |  2 +-
 Documentation/git-push.txt                    |  4 +-
 .../using-signed-tag-in-pull-request.txt      | 38 +++++++++----------
 Documentation/user-manual.txt                 |  2 +-
 commit.c                                      |  2 +-
 config.c                                      |  2 +-
 config.h                                      |  2 +-
 contrib/hooks/multimail/git_multimail.py      |  4 +-
 date.c                                        |  2 +-
 pathspec.h                                    |  2 +-
 strbuf.h                                      |  2 +-
 t/t9300-fast-import.sh                        |  2 +-
 wt-status.c                                   |  2 +-
 14 files changed, 38 insertions(+), 33 deletions(-)


base-commit: c09b6306c6ca275ed9d0348a8c8014b2ff723cfb
Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-975%2Fderrickstolee%2Fthey-v1
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-975/derrickstolee/they-v1
Pull-Request: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/pull/975

Comments

Felipe Contreras June 7, 2021, 8:10 p.m. UTC | #1

Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget wrote:
> In another topic, I claimed [1] that singular "they" was better than
> "he/she" for gender neutrality.
> 
> [1]
> https://lore.kernel.org/git/[e-mail]/

And in that same thread I argued otherwise:

https://lore.kernel.org/git/[e-mail]/

> The fact that singular "they" is less awkward to write and read seemed
> obvious to me, so I did not back up my statement with any references or
> reasons. The ensuing discussion did include reasons, especially brian m.
> carlson's thoughtful message [2].
> 
> [2] https://lore.kernel.org/git/[e-mail]/

To which I also argued against:

https://lore.kernel.org/git/[e-mail]/

> This patch series officially adopts singular "they" as a contributor
> guideline; see Patch 4 for the change to the guidelines and the reasoning
> for the change. Before modifying the guidelines, documentation and comments
> are updated to not use gendered pronouns, which provides examples of how to
> use it.

You use a descriptivist argument (language evolves naturally), to claim
that singular "they" is already used, but then use that to *prescriptive*
rules, which is the opposite. You are contradicting yourself.

Either we follow descriptivists and let the writers decide what's
appropriate, or we follow prescriptivists and establish rules
prescriptivist linguists agree on. Prescriptivists are on the side that
singular "they" should not be used (because of Latin adherence).

You can't have both.

> I would appreciate ACKs in support on patch 4.

A firm NAK from me.

Bagas Sanjaya June 12, 2021, 4:40 a.m. UTC | #2

Hi,

On 07/06/21 23.57, Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget wrote:
> This patch series officially adopts singular "they" as a contributor
> guideline; see Patch 4 for the change to the guidelines and the reasoning
> for the change. Before modifying the guidelines, documentation and comments
> are updated to not use gendered pronouns, which provides examples of how to
> use it.

Sorry for late into this debate, because I'm still on recovering from 
fever a week ago (I still have headache and prefer eating less).

Honestly I'm against this patchset. There are concerns from ESL learners 
(myself included) which have been taught that `they` MUST be used as 
plural pronoun.

As an alternative while still keeping singular constructs, why don't we 
use gender neutral pronoun "it"?

Phillip Susi June 12, 2021, 2:19 p.m. UTC | #3

Bagas Sanjaya <[e-mail]> writes:

> As an alternative while still keeping singular constructs, why don't
> we use gender neutral pronoun "it"?

Because "it" refers to a thing, not a person.  It is dehumanizing.