the use of pronoun 'one'

[enydia]

Hi, teachers.

Who or what does the word in red refer to?

I'm very confused about such use of the pronoun 'one'. Could you show me some explanation?

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While much has been recorded of young people imitating media violence, little has been directed to the influence of sad violence on those who are able to differentiate the imaginary situations in movies and on television from reality. If one were to find no similar relationship it could be immediately surmised that the most direct solution is increased supervision of young people, and not the modification of media content. The degree to which people are influenced by what they see in the media depends directly on how responsibly they are educated about the relationship of fiction and reality.

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Thank you in advance.

Enydia

 

[Barb_D]

Hi.
"One" means "any person."

In informal writing, it's common to use "you" there, but it's an impersonal "you" and doesn't mean "you, the reader" but just "a person."

Its advantage is that it avoids the passive.
Instead of saying "It if were found that" you* can say "If one finds."

*Note that I just used "you" there. It could have been "one" instead.

 

[bds51]

Hello Endyia,

The pronoun 'one' refers to people in general or any person. It's formal and used more in British English than in North American English. In normal conversation, Americans tend to use the pronoun 'you' or the adjective 'your' instead of 'one'.

 

[enydia]

Very helpful!

Thank you, teachers! :-D

 

[emsr2d2]

Very helpful!

Thank you, teachers! :-D

One extra little piece of information for you - the King/Queen (of England) has been known to use "one" in place of the word "I". I have tried to find out why this is, but even Google has failed to enlighten me.

 

[enydia]

One extra little piece of information for you - the King/Queen (of England) has been known to use "one" in place of the word "I". I have tried to find out why this is, but even Google has failed to enlighten me.

Wow, great 'one'! :-D