Date:  Mon, 10 Nov 1997 08:09:07 -0500
From:  Robert Ness <ness[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]DICKINSON.EDU>
Subject: Re: one as a pronoun?

I mislike it too. But "one" and "they" as indefinites are old enough, at
least late ME:
"The carpenter out of his slumber sterte,/And herde oon crien "water!' as
he were wood" (the Miller's Tale, I (A) 3116-7). Old English regularly
used "man" as an indefinite, as in "man stearf" (Someone died). On Sun, 9
Nov 1997, Alan Baragona wrote:

> (Dale F. Coye) wrote:
> >
> > After reading 72 freshmen papers I find myself facing: "One finds many points
> > in common..." in nearly every one. I hate this construction. I especially
> > hate it when it's reflexive: "when one asks oneself what one's position
> > is..." Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage tells us it is 'usually
> > the mark of a formal style,' but I find myself wanting to tell my students
> > not to use it ever, because it sounds stiff and unnatural. In other words, my
> > Sprachgefuehl tells me people don't use it in informal speech, and formal
> > speech that deviates too much from informal speech doesn't set well. My
> > question is- what's the current feeling on this construction, in writing and
> > in speech? I know some people use it in conversational styles, but is it
> > only PhDs? It sounds foreign to me.  German, 'man,' French 'on,' but not
> > English.
> >
> > Dale Coye
> > The College of New Jersey
>
> Like you, I don't like it and don't use it. It would be one good way
> for students to avoid either sexist pronoun usage or the clumsy "he or
> she" except that they always end up shifting from indeterminate
> pseudo-pronoun "one" to the masculine anyway ("When one reads J.D.
> Salinger, he is overcome by sadness."), and it makes them sound as if
> they're trying to be British.
>
> Alan B.
>