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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Vocabulary

Why "His own?"

Hello,

I wonder why the author(Dickens) says; "In his own meditations" and not "their own mediatations" in this sentence? Is possible to say 'their' too?
I wish I spoke English like him .

"Each immersed in his own meditations."

  

Top answer

'His' has been the accepted formal pronoun for singular persons of unknown *** for many years and remains so for some grammarians and English teachers. 'Their' has been the popular informal pronoun for the same use for even longer.

— Mister Micawber

  • 'His' has been the accepted formal pronoun for singular persons of unknown *** for many years and remains so for some grammarians and English teachers.
  • 'Their' has been the popular informal pronoun for the same use for even longer.
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4 Answers
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'His' has been the accepted formal pronoun for singular persons of unknown *** for many years and remains so for some grammarians and English teachers. 'Their' has been the popular informal pronoun for the same use for even longer.
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ninania Hello,I wonder why the author(Dickens) says; "In his own meditations" and not "their own mediatations" in this sentence? Is possible to say 'their' too? I wish I spoke English like him ."Each immersed in his own meditations."

We still haven't solved this problem of the non-gender specific pronoun and its subsequent forms. "Their" would be very c
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Until about the 1980s, the masculine pronoun was almost always used as a gender-neutral. The only way to avoid it here is to go with the awkward "Each immersed in his or her own meditations" or to rewrite the sentence altogether:

"each of us immersed in our own meditations"
"all immersed in their own meditations"

Dickens rules!!
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