Personal pronouns in specifications

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 Sunday, 30 April 2000 19:39:42 UTC