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Archiver > TMG > 2005-09 > 1127141961


From: Neil MacDonald <>
Subject: Witness pronouns
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 15:59:21 +0100 (BST)


A query like this came up in August. I think I
understand the facts - but I don't understand the
logic.

For a census tag, my normal witness sentence is:
[W] appeared on the census <of [D]> in the household
of [P] <and [PO]> <[L]>

My practice is to have the head of the household as
the only principal, and all others as witnesses.

This gives "XXXX appeared ...". I want to change this
to "He [or She] appeared ..." irrespective of the
position in a paragraph, i.e. to force the pronoun. I
changed the sentence to "[RP:Witness] appeared ..."
This works OK with a single witness, but with multiple
witnesses I get "They appeared ...".

1. Am I right in thinking I can't get "He/She" without
changing all witnesses to some unique Role (e.g
1st/2nd/3rd ... witness)?

2. What is the logic of having "They" appear? Surely
that would only be appropriate in a narrative/journal
report where all witnesses are listed in the narrative
for each witness - and I'm not sure that's possible.

Neil


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