Re: He/She/They/It - Defending the Brits

[Elaine Winters <ewinters -at- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

        Actually, I can't quote a specific source.  All I have
        is  my personal experience.  I lived and worked with
        'them' for four years in Asia (HK) and they *usually*
        referred to their offspring as 'it' - - I never got
        used to this practice.  EW


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E. Winters: Principal                 Program Facilitating and Consulting
Instructional Design  *  Interactivity  *  Cross - Cultural Communication
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On Fri, 9 Sep 1994, Louise Penberthy wrote:

> In article <2E6B6C06 -at- msmail-gw -dot- isl -dot- com>,
> Rollings, Gill <WGILLR -at- wok-msmail-gw -dot- isl -dot- com> wrote:
> >Louise Penberthy quotes thus from George F Hayhoe III's message:
> >
> >>PS--Would anyone seriously use "it" to refer to their child?
> >
> >and responds:
> >>I think British people may use "it."  I've seen it in books, for instance.
> >
> >Well, *I* have never seen "it" used to refer to a child in this way.  I'd be
> >fascinated to know which books you're referring to.  [.....]

> Unfortunately, I don't remember any of the titles now.  They were
> all books I read as a child.  However, T.H. White's _Once and
> Future King_ does, at the end, referring to the small child King
> Arthur finds in the stable (if you read carefully, you can tell
> that the child is (or will be) Sir Thomas Mallory -- nice touch).
> I thought T.H White was British.  If I'm wrong, there goes my
> only solid evidence.  :-)

> -- Louise Penberthy

> --
> Louise Penberthy             |  O Goddess, keep me in the company of
> LCC                          |  those who seek the truth, and preserve
> Georgia Tech                 |  me from those who have found it.
> louise -at- pravda -dot- cc -dot- gatech -dot- edu  |