Personal pronouns in specifications from Martin J. Duerst on 2000-05-13 (www-international@w3.org from April to June 2000) (original) (raw)

Hello Susan,

There are various cases where some pronouns should not be used.

One case is where the specification writers use 'we' or so to state something in the specification; apart from very special cases e.g. in the introduction or acknowledgements section, this shouldn't be used.

The case that you refer to below is in examples, such as http://www.mycompany.com and such. It is very difficult e.g. to translate this into Japanese, for various reasons:

There are more than one kind of 1st person pronouns; it depends on formality/politeness which to use. It is difficult to choose the right one.
The possessive, which fits in rather easy in English, exists in Japanese but sounds rather strange in a context such as the above.
To use a pronoun is rather bad grammar/usage in Japanese; if it can be avoided, something else is used (leave it out, use a name or a title,...).
The use of the 1st person pronoun in Japanese sounds too self-confident/egoistic.

Other languages may have similar problems, or they may not.

Regards, Martin.

At 00/04/30 16:40 -0800, Susan Lesch wrote:

Would you kindly explain why some English personal pronouns should not be used in specifications? Martin Duerst has mentioned it has to do with translation [1], but I cannot find a clear reference.

I proofread specifications, and would like to be able to point to your answer on www-international@w3.org by URI. If this is the wrong list to ask, apologies.

Below is a chart representing en-US by person and case from Warriner's English Grammar and Composition. In short, which pronouns should not be used and why?

Singular
          Nominative    Objective     Possessive
1st person I me my, mine 2nd person you you your, yours 3rd person he, she, it him, her, it his, hers, its

Plural
          Nominative    Objective     Possessive
1st person we us our, ours 2nd person you you your, yours 3rd person they them their, theirs

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-xml-linking-comments/2000JanMa r/0079.html (final paragraph)

-- Susan Lesch Intern, W3C

Received on Saturday, 13 May 2000 09:17:57 UTC