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Subject:Generic "he": What I meant to say was.... From:Mark Levinson <mark -at- SD -dot- CO -dot- IL> Date:Sun, 13 Aug 1995 09:12:49 IDT
"Have you been out in the sun a lot recently, Mark?"
said Richard Mateosian, commenting on my garbled opinion about
the "doctors" sentence. (No, I live an hour's walk from
the beach but I've been too overworked to spare the time
so far this summer.) Regarding the choice between...
a) When he faces the patient, he faces himself.
b) When they face the patient, they face themselves.
I had meant to say...
I think Jean is right that there's a difference. It isn't
clear whether, as a doctor in the second sentence above,
you'd need to come to terms with only yourself or with
other doctors as well.
By the way, Richard, do I remember correctly that the Armenian
language has a particularly interesting idiom for "it's raining"?
__________________________________________________________________________
||- Mark L. Levinson, mark -at- sd -dot- co -dot- il -- Box 5780, 46157 Herzlia, Israel -||
