The Grammar Logs
#512

Can you tell me why a child is to be referred to as "it" when adhering to strict rules of grammar? For men/women, the use of he/she has become accepted. Why not the same for children? Many thanks.

I don't know what "strict rules of grammar" you're referring to, that "child" has to be referred to as "it." I have heard of an infant referred to as "it" in situation in which the sex of the child is not determined or relevant (often the case), as in "The infant was abandoned at the church door. It was wrapped in only a thin blanket." And you will, from time to time, see "child" and "it" coupled in the same manner. Generally, though, when the sex can be determined with children, you will use "him" or "her" to good effect. Many writers object to the use of "he/she" and "his/her," etc., but the use of "it," for obvious reasons, should be avoided except in the case of very young children. If you're writing text about children, you can usually avoid the pronoun-gender problem by pluralizing and talking about "children" instead of "the child."

Which sentence is correct?

• She lives on Guam.
• She lives in Guam.

"She lives on Guarm" would be correct — as it would be for virtually all islands, except for the really big ones like Australia, England, Ireland, etc. (I'm not sure what the cutoff is for switching from "on" to "in," but it's way bigger than Guam!)

Is pony express a proper noun? Should it always be caps?

I had thought that it was a proper noun, like the name of a private corporation that delivered the mail in the Old West, but my dictionary lists it in lower-case letters. In the definition, though, it says the words are often capitalized. In the online History of the United States Postal Service, you'll find it capitalized, and I believe that's the normal convention.

Correct or incorrect?

• The suspect, Ward Weaver, had been jailed since Aug. 13 on an unrelated rape charge, and hasn't been charged in the girls' deaths.
• The suspect, Ward Weaver, had been jailed since Aug. 13 on an unrelated rape charge, and hasn't been charged in the girl's deaths.

I am under the impression that the second sentence is correct due to the fact that girls is already plural. Mass argument ensues with editorial department for newspaper over opinion. Please advise.

"Girl's deaths" would mean that a singular girl has died more than once. You want the first option. We use the plural for deaths, also, because we presume the events to be discrete happenings.

The following is from a practice medical transcription report:

"Upper pouch was outlined with methylene blue; 5 cc definitely began to distend the pouch."

My instructor claims that the semicolon is incorrect here. Is she right, or is this just an example of her dislike for semicolons? ;)

It might be an example of her dislike for semicolons, but I think she's also correct. I'm completely unfamiliar with the procedure being described here, but it seems to me that the two events being described are separate enough that combining these two clauses into one sentence is a bit of a stretch. The science and art of Medical Transcription might have its own conventions in this matter, but in that case you'd have to rely on your teacher's experience and judgment anyway.

I am producing a menu for a very special dinner celebrating IBM Australia's 70th birthday. The attendees are the former CEO's of IBM Australia. What is the correct way to show the heading : e.g. CEOs' dinner or CEO's dinner. We want to emphasise the fact that it is for more than one CEO.

If you need to make it possessive, use "CEOs' dinner." "CEO's dinner" makes it a very lonely event. The simple plural of CEO, by the way, is CEOs, and you could use that words as an attributive noun to describe the event, the CEOs dinner.

When expressing doubt etc. about a statement i.e. "That is the oldest building in town" Do we reply by saying "it is?" or "is it?"

Thank you very much!

This would be a very easy question to answer if I were standing there in the same room with you — because it's all about intonation. You can make either one of those sentences express doubt by putting the emphasis on one word (as opposed to the other). If we put the emphasis on the second word, "It IS?" or on the first word, "IS it?" the question expresses doubt. The second version, "IS it?" is a bit more inquisitive or questioning than the other; the first, "It IS?" is marked by a sense of wonder. (My interpretation of these intonations might be entirely subjective, I have to add.)

I have a question as to how to know when to use was versus were . For example , is " And there were a great number" correct or," And there was a great number" ?

Usually, "a number" or even "a great number" would be a plural construction, as in "a great number of students HAVE left already." (We make a useful distinction between "a number" and "the number," as in "The number of students HAS risen remarkably.") Technically, that should also apply to your sentence, in which the subject "a great number" follows the verb, "were." There are, however, occasions in which the "there" is regarded as the existential subject of a sentence, as in "There is a man and a woman in that room." Technically, formally, the were is correct, but in speech or colloquial text, the was would prove unexceptionable.

Would it be a five foot two inch girl or a five feet two inch girl? Why does my ear tell me that the singular is correct when there are 5 of those foot... er foots.... I mean feet? And what about hyphens? Five-feet two-inch girl? Five-foot-two-inch girl?

I have never seen a satisfactory explanation of why we use the singular in that construction, but it's the same as the six-inch rule or the ten-foot pole. The Gregg Reference Manual recommends using numbers and hyphens between all the elements of that measurement, as in "a 5-foot-2-inch girl."

In what situations do you use "centered around" in a sentence?

Try to avoid the construction altogether. You can say that something is "centered on" or "upon" something, but "centered around" is kind of a contradiction of intent, "centering" meaning to gather to an exact point and "around" being more scattered.

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