Re: virus: You and Your Impersonal Pronouns!

Jim (magicjim@islc.net)
Tue, 1 Jun 1999 16:21:40 -0500

If confronted or finding a unicorn in the forest what would be your course of action?
If finding a unicorn in the forest what reaction would it elicit ?

I myself would catch the thing and sell tickets to see it maybe even do a pay perview special.

Best wishes
Jim

Master Magician & Paranormalist
Jim Callahan magicjim@islc.net
Creator of Applied Thought Technologies
http://www.magicjim.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Rhodes <proftim@speakeasy.org> To: Church of Virus <virus@lucifer.com>
Date: Tuesday, June 01, 1999 3:15 PM
Subject: virus: You and Your Impersonal Pronouns!

>Anyone know of any good linguistic tricks to get around the use of the
>impersonal "you" in English? I could use "one", but I get tired of that
and
>would prefer to save it for removing the author from the writing, rather
>than for just generalizing, if I could. (Besides, it cramps my style!)
For
>example, I know I could rewrite:
>
>"What would you do if you came across a blue unicorn in the forest?"
>
>as:
>
>"What would one do if one were to come across a blue unicorn in the
forest?"
>
>But I think it loses something in the translation (and something other than
>just the possibility that the impersonal pronoun "you" might be read as
>personal.)
>
>So does anyone know of any good ways of getting around this? It seems to
be
>a greater problem in written communication, where you're less likely to
>understand that one is speaking generally rather than about you
>specifically, than it is in actual speech--but that may just be because it
>is easier to quickly correct any misinterpretations face-to-face than it is
>over e-mail.
>
>Any thoughts on this? (Short of making up new words.)
>
>-Prof. Tim
>
>
>