First and second mentioned pronouns

[jack]

Merging "He" and "She" makes lots of sentences more ambiguous. A common idea is to instead of having 'male' and 'female' have 'first and second'. "He insulted him and he hit him" is a bit ambiguous. "He1 insulted him2 and he2 hit him1" isn't. Doesn't one of the cool artificial languages do that?

But it occurred to me -- that's exactly how geeks use "foo" and "bar". What other innovations do we have already that we didn't notice? :)

Comments

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we should have a Matthew pronoun system, or something.

Yeah, we get along ok, the idea is probably impractical. But you could make the same argument about names about our current pronouns, and it does get repetitive especially with long names.

I like the letters. It's like what you automatically do online. But in a way they are pronouns...

[naath.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, it's what I do in text. I do the same when speaking though if I'm not talking about named individuals.

Matthew's are; MHF, MD, Matt and Matthew. Which makes it easier. There are other multiple-people-with-same-name that are harder.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Matthew's are; MHF, MD, Matt and Matthew.

Yeah, I suppose that works. I tend to resort to just saying "Matthew" louder and louder until it becomes clear :)