Pronouns

[jack]

"When John was a woman, [he/she/they] said '...' " Which pronoun do you prefer? (That is, "he" is appropriate for John now, "she" would be appropriate for what John was then, and "they" would specify the ambiguity.)

"The things God or Jesus [was/were] recorded as saying are ..." Which pronoun do you prefer? (That is, do you treat them as two separate people (were)? Or one person (was)? :))

Obviously both are arbitrary, and I think both sufficiently specialised that most people wouldn't mind which you used, I just wondered if anyone had a strong opinion :)

Comments

[naath.livejournal.com]

I think at least some people would say that John never *was* a woman, he was just acting the part of one. I don't think there are any universally acceptable ways of talking about John's experiences as a woman - although if it really were relevant I would follow John's clues (generally I would say it isn't relevant and just say "last year John said that he was planning on blah blah blah"), without clues would probably assume that the best pronoun to use would be the current one (John is still a he in the past) and I might use 'living as a woman' ("John told me that when he was living as a woman the waiter never handed him the bill but that now he is presenting as a man he often gets the bill, from this I conclude that this is a sexist practice" for instance).

I'd probably use 'they' for the parts of the trinity, but I'm not really informed.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I think at least some people would say that John never *was* a woman,

Oh yes, good point. I should have specified, it's likely that John has a preference, and if so, just follow that, and even if you don't know that, or he doesn't want to dwell on it, he may well have a preference, so avoiding it is generally wise. But in theory... :)

I'd probably use 'they' for the parts of the trinity, but I'm not really informed.

You can probably justify referring to God as plural anyway, if you feel like finding an excuse. (I understand that's a polite form of address in some languages, like royal "we" :))

[pizza.maircrosoft.com (from livejournal.com)]

I think at least some people would say that John never *was* a woman, he was just acting the part of one.

Depends on the exact person of course, but - yeah. Could you not instead say

"When John was living as a woman, [he/she] said... " which I think makes the decision easier?

[pizza.maircrosoft.com (from livejournal.com)]

(oh bum, I screwed up my html).