cubezero3
Member
- Joined
- May 6, 2009
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Chinese
- Home Country
- China
- Current Location
- China
The child was torn from its mother's arms.
I've noticed that native speakers, on many occasions, feel reluctantly to use he or him to refer to a certain person, whose gender is not specified. An instance of this can be found in a book entitled Contract, which I am reading at the moment. In the book, the author, who has been a lawyer for years, frequently alternate he with she, or, in a different situation, his with her. Today, I saw the above quoted sentence in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and couldn't help wondering whether the writer's choice of it was all due to the fact that he didn't want to offend both sides.
Many thanks
Richard
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