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_caspar_ wrote

the problem with using it, is then all are thought even more of as things, entrenching a hard materialist worldview. I like more the idea of all being persons over things, but if then everything is suddenly they/them/themselves, I could see it causing confusion. but I do like they for the reason it emphasizes potential multiplicities in persons (human or otherwise) over an atomistic separateness. english :/

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kin wrote

I like the idea as a non-native Engrish speaker

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rot wrote

is 'it' used as a personal pronoun in your native language?

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kin wrote

No, I speak a romance language.

But we have issues with gendered nouns etc.

For some time I was interested in conlag (constructed languages) because Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

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transvot wrote

some people are already trying

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masque wrote (edited )

There are plenty of languages that don't make a distinction between animate & inanimate when it comes to pronouns, just as there are lots of languages that don't have gendered pronouns. I doubt it has a substantial impact on people's world view.

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Majrelende OP wrote (edited )

It might not have much impact, but imagine having no other word with which to refer to the body than “corpse”, or having to call your friend your spouse. It isn’t that you think you are dead or married to your friend, but it remains a little ridiculous— that was mostly the place of my thought.

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masque wrote (edited )

If the word "corpse" was used to refer to living bodies as well as dead ones, then no one would find it weird to describe their own body as a corpse, because that would just be the normal usage of the word. Meaning is determined by usage.

Coincidentally, the English word "corpse" comes (via French) from the Latin corpus, which did regularly refer to any body regardless of alive-ness.

Come to think of it, does English even have a word that refers exclusively to a living body? Because "body" can also refer to a dead body.

On a similar note, there are lots of languages where "friend" or a variant can be used to refer to a platonic friend or a romantic partner (see e.g. "ami" vs "petit ami" in French). Even English has both platonic and romantic uses of "girlfriend".

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