improper nouns

[coal tattoo]

something i find amusing in spanish is that the word for cunt, coño, is masculine. the word for dick, polla, is feminine.

go figure.

[sennomulo]

As a linguistics major, I can tell you the term you are looking for is not "improper noun". A "proper noun" is a noun that always gets capitalized, like Bob or Thailand or Christianity. The correct term for what you're describing is a gender-neutral pronoun.

Most languages (but not most European languages) do not differentiate between the concepts of "he" and "she", having a single word to cover the two functions. Many even use this word where English uses "it" as well, such as Chinese.

However, it is useless to develop a new gender-neutral pronoun since languages have historically been very hesitant to adopt a new pronoun, due to the fact that they are used in practically every sentence. But this is not even necessary. Colloquial English has already invented a gender-neutral pronoun. Think about it. What pronoun would you use in this sentence, in everyday casual English:

"If somebody comes, make sure ____ can't see us."

He? No, too presumptuous. S/he? Too cumbersome. The answer, of course, is "they".

[|Y|]

Yeah, I'd mentioned singular they in this thread. I use it habitually.

[comastalker]

yep, just use the singular they. It's pretty old (even shakespeare used it).
In german english courses you always learn to use it.

[mlee952]

I call them "personal pronouns".

http://www.answers.com/personal%20pronouns

As a linguistics major, I can tell you the term you are looking for is not "improper noun". A "proper noun" is a noun that always gets capitalized, like Bob or Thailand or Christianity. The correct term for what you're describing is a gender-neutral pronoun.

Most languages (but not most European languages) do not differentiate between the concepts of "he" and "she", having a single word to cover the two functions. Many even use this word where English uses "it" as well, such as Chinese.

However, it is useless to develop a new gender-neutral pronoun since languages have historically been very hesitant to adopt a new pronoun, due to the fact that they are used in practically every sentence. But this is not even necessary. Colloquial English has already invented a gender-neutral pronoun. Think about it. What pronoun would you use in this sentence, in everyday casual English:

"If somebody comes, make sure ____ can't see us."

He? No, too presumptuous. S/he? Too cumbersome. The answer, of course, is "they".