50
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between “they” and “it” for people, especially for those people who identify as non-binary?
Indeed, it is rude to refer to a person as "it", which is the pronoun for objects and animals (except sometimes when the animal's sex is known). You shouldn't use it for people.
Singular ...
- 67.3k
32
votes
Accepted
Is it correct to write "this book discusses"?
When it means to deal with or treat a subject, discuss does not need an animate subject. Collins explains that discuss can mean:
to treat (a subject) in speech or writing
The first three volumes ...
- 37k
13
votes
What is the difference between “they” and “it” for people, especially for those people who identify as non-binary?
In English, different pronouns are used depending on the animacy of what is referred to. There are three cases:
People are referred to using "he," "she," or "they" (or ...
- 3,143
11
votes
Accepted
Why is it common in English to address animals as "it"?
No, unlike many other Indo-European languages, current English has no default gender. Grammatically speaking, English does not have gender at all—the only gender that English marks at all is natural ...
11
votes
Is it correct to write "this book discusses"?
While examples from dictionaries with inanimate objects were provided, it could be argued that a book (or any other inanimate object) can not really "discuss". However, it's idiomatic and &...
- 567
7
votes
Is it correct to write "this book discusses"?
This is presumably not the main point of your question, but I would not write, as you suggest, "this paper will discuss" unless the paper has yet to be written. Simply say "this paper ...
- 2,171
7
votes
Accepted
Question about "The portrait utilizes a palette of..."
Your sentence is correct. It is a figure of speech called personification which is commonly used. Look at this example:
The picture utilizes a pyramidal arrangement common of High Renaissance artists,...
- 37k
6
votes
What is the difference between “they” and “it” for people, especially for those people who identify as non-binary?
You will still, rarely, hear people call babies “it” without any negative connotations. This is a vestige of the Old English word for child having once been grammatically neuter, and was more common ...
- 7,597
3
votes
Is the pronoun "it" gender-neutral pronoun?
The pronoun "it" is indeed gender neutral in the sense of not specifying a gender. However it would be better to describe it as "ungendered", meaning it is applied to entities that ...
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3
votes
Is it correct to write "this book discusses"?
A quick google search offered the below and similar definitions. It is also something you often hear, so I don't think you could emphatically say it is incorrect to do so in formal writing, either.
...
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3
votes
Accepted
Can a program name be possessive? (i.e. Notepad++'s plugin manager)
Generally, I would say yes.
Tom's computer
Word's spell checker
Grammatically speaking, there is no difference between these examples.
However, specific to the context of software, the ...
- 7,813
2
votes
Which is correct: "staff that may have this information" or "staff who may have this information"?
There seems to be a firm belief in some circles that
"Who refers to people, and that refers to things."
Unfortunately, this belief is incorrect, at least in the second part.
As usual, ...
- 109k
2
votes
Using "he" or "she" for an animal not a person?
Yes, animals of a given gender can be referred to using he or she as appropriate. For example we might say
The female dog runs across the field. She is fast.
However, when referring to an animal ...
- 2,069
2
votes
Is the pronoun "it" gender-neutral pronoun?
In general, it is used to refer to things that are not persons.
As others have already mentioned, this means that referring to a person with it will in many circumstances be viewed as dehumanizing and ...
- 84.5k
2
votes
Using the pronouns "he" and "she" for animals
Using "he" or "she" to refer to an animal of known gender, like a pet, is easy to understand, as you say.
Using a gendered personal pronoun to refer to an indefinite animal, or an animal of unknown ...
- 84.5k
1
vote
Is it correct to write "this book discusses"?
The TLDR is that there's nothing wrong with your usage, as others here have argued. A number of responses have shown that using discuss metaphorically is widely accepted. That means professional ...
- 1,127
1
vote
What is the difference between “they” and “it” for people, especially for those people who identify as non-binary?
If a non-binary person is introducing themself to others, they will state their pronoun. And if you're not sure of someone's pronoun, you could always ask them — it's just as socially acceptable as ...
- 5,376
1
vote
What is the difference between “they” and “it” for people, especially for those people who identify as non-binary?
All languages have the resources to distinguish between the male and the female among animal species. It has, after all, always been fundamental to reproduction and until comparatively recently, to ...
- 11.4k
1
vote
smitten with/by
It is not a choice, it is usage. According to Google Books, especially from the ‘80s.
This site suggests the following nuances between “smitten with” vs “smitten by:”
Both smitten by and smitten ...
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1
vote
Thoughts on my neologism? Is it new?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, there were two verbs spelled that way in the 1600s, although they are now obsolete. Etymologically, one came from the Latin inanimāre and had two meanings: "...
- 67.3k
1
vote
Using Verbs With Inanimate Objects
This is a matter of rhetoric and style.
When we have non-humans (like writing) doing things that humans do (like singing), we call it personification.
As you might imagine, humans—self-centered ...
- 19.7k
1
vote
Animateness-neutral "its"
The quoted sentence is using "House of Representatives" to mean members of that body. So the plural pronoun is perfectly appropriate, 232 years ago and now.
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1
vote
Animateness-neutral "its"
This is not a singular they, as your tags imply it might be, but a plural they. In modern American English, we usually treat collective nouns as singular. "The company puts out a press release most ...
- 2,435
1
vote
Why is "the tail/house of the dog" correct, but "the bowl of the dog" not?
The comparison phrases you are using would normally be expressed as follows:
The house of the dog => the dog's house => the kennel (noun: a shelter for a dog)
The tail of the dog => the dog'...
- 1,496
1
vote
What word denotes a belief that apparently inanimate objects actually express a malicious, autonomous will?
Perhaps the word you had in mind is Hylozoism
Hylozoism is the philosophical doctrine according to which all matter is alive or animated [Wikipedia]
which I came across yesterday in connection with ...
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1
vote
"What am I" vs. "who am I"
The question presupposes a context in which animals are anthropomorphised. Whether one will use who or what depends on how far that anthropomorphising is supposed to go. If one takes it to go all the ...
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