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Everybody is welcome

From: Phil Last, 2nd December 91

Vector 8:3, page 11

humour

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 11

      Everybody is welcome, whether they are a member or not
LENGTH ERROR
Everybody is welcome, whether they are a member or not
                              ^

Scalar extension is not implemented in English. Grammatically correct would be:

Everyone is welcome, whether one is a member or not.

Everyone is welcome, whether he is a member or not.

All are welcome, whether they are members or not.

One could argue that the Regal usurpation of the pronoun ‘one’, albeit that its proper use (c.f. Fr ‘on’, Ger ‘man’) is Not in place of ‘I’, renders this usage obsolete.

He could argue that the sexist connotations associated with the pronoun ‘he’ render this usage controversial.

She could elide the pronoun and verb, giving:

Everyone is welcome, whether a member or not.

The qualification is tautological in any case. In fact, it hardly qualifies as a qualification:

∧/⍵ ←→~∨/~⍵

In other words if we take ‘Everyone’ as our universe of discourse, then it must subsume:

‘whether a murderer ot the English Language or not’

‘whether the Editor of Vector or not’

… and the union of any other set with its complement.

This leaves us with a fairly concise (as is usual in APL contexts):

Everyone is welcome

… or to revert to the plural:

All are welcome