Timeline for Can 'it' be used to refer to a person?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 9, 2016 at 15:42 | comment | added | Lambie | The answers are confusing and there is a lot of overlap. I tried to answer it as SIMPLY as humanly possible. All I said was that the deictic pronoun implies an object. A picture is an object. | |
| Oct 8, 2016 at 18:29 | comment | added | alephzero | In BrE, the answer to "Is this your sister?" can be either "Yes, it is" or "Yes, she is". Personally, I would probably use "it," since neither "this" nor "it" explicitly specify a gender. But the answer to "Is she/Mary your sister?" can only be "Yes, she is," unless you intentionally want to insult Mary by referring to her as "thing" rather than as a human. | |
| Oct 8, 2016 at 17:38 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Lambie: You've chosen to "paraphrase" as the person pointed out as an object to justify your inflexible position, but someone else might just as reasonably paraphrase as the woman pointed out as an object (given it's a picture, the sex of the person should be contextually obvious). | |
| Oct 8, 2016 at 16:17 | comment | added | Lambie | Yes, [the person pointed out as an object] it is my sister. The answer is not, Yes, she is. This is a diectic....Even if pointing to a picture or image of a person or the person, the question: Is THIS your sister is not same as Is SHE your sister. | |
| Oct 8, 2016 at 15:50 | comment | added | Crowley | "Yes, she is" would be my answer for both questions. | |
| Oct 8, 2016 at 14:09 | history | answered | Lambie | CC BY-SA 3.0 |