First person plural
Sept 16, 2015 6:12:22 GMT -5
Post by ahinton on Sept 16, 2015 6:12:22 GMT -5
Following an implied invitation from "Betsy", who appears to be a guest rather than a member of this forum (the total membership of which has now stood at a mere 13 for quite some time), I wish to draw attention to what seems to be a bizarre and so far unexplained use of the first person plural by at least one member who nevertheless omits to clarify whom it is intended to encompass in addition to the member concerned. I refer to such examples as "we believe that...", "we would advise..." and, most recently, "our grammatical authorities", the last of which is as puzzling as it seems pertinent to a thread about specific grammatical usages in English.
I would like to invite the member/s who indulge in such usage - as well as those who do not but who read posts by members who do - to post their thoughts on this subject in the hope that the reason for such usage might either become clear or be reveased not to exist.
I stress, as I did in my response to "Betsy", that I have no particular interest in the subject of pronoun usage in more general terms and that, on the contrary, I seek solely and specifically to elicit information on this particular first person plural usage in the absence of clarification of the identities concerned, not least because it seems quite possible that those included in "we", "our" and the like might be so without their prior express consent or even knowledge, which smacks of an attempt to draw in those others in the hope of lending an invented supportive endorsement of the notion that what the poster believes to be correct must be so purely because he/she says so.
I would like to invite the member/s who indulge in such usage - as well as those who do not but who read posts by members who do - to post their thoughts on this subject in the hope that the reason for such usage might either become clear or be reveased not to exist.
I stress, as I did in my response to "Betsy", that I have no particular interest in the subject of pronoun usage in more general terms and that, on the contrary, I seek solely and specifically to elicit information on this particular first person plural usage in the absence of clarification of the identities concerned, not least because it seems quite possible that those included in "we", "our" and the like might be so without their prior express consent or even knowledge, which smacks of an attempt to draw in those others in the hope of lending an invented supportive endorsement of the notion that what the poster believes to be correct must be so purely because he/she says so.