"One" is the loneliest pronoun

[Mark Levinson <mark -at- SD -dot- CO -dot- IL>]

"One" has been used for time out of mind by the English
to mean "me".

** Thus the American expression "taking care of Number One."

   Just kidding.  The British "one" still supposedly has the meaning
   of "any ordinary person."  In foptalk, "one" can acquire a
   first-person connotation because the speaker makes every effort
   not to refer directly to the self.  (As that movie about
   the River Kwai pointed out, how like the Japanese the
   British are...)

     Q. Another cup of tea, your Lordship?
     A. One does hesitate to impose...

   In this example, his Lordship presents a generalization, from
   which an answer to the specific situation can be inferred, in
   order to avoid focusing grammatically on himself.  The more
   specific the situation and the less general the generalization,
   the sillier the device sounds, and of course the attempt to divert
   attention from the ego only draws attention to it.

      Oh dear, one's boots have been splashed.

   In my opinion, such misuse of "one" should not deter us from
   proper use of "one" in generalizations; for example,

      At the entrance to a mosque, one removes one's shoes.

   (I wouldn't say "you remove," because maybe you don't happen
    into mosques.  But everybody who does, does.)

   True, "one" isn't used much these days, but it has its place
   in the language.
__________________________________________________________________________
||- Mark L. Levinson, mark -at- sd -dot- co -dot- il -- Box 5780, 46157 Herzlia, Israel -||
||  If God intended 1 space between sentences, why do we have 2 thumbs? ||