Singular ‘They’ Is Word of the Year
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Singular ‘They’ Is Word of the Year
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Re: Singular ‘They’ Is Word of the Year
#2This bit:
Singular they was Word of the Year back in 1365, when it first appeared in English as a gender-neutral English pronoun. It won again in 1885, when it was praised in the Atlanta Constitution for triumphing over the ignorant opposition of grammarians and lexicographers.
Reads like an Onion article. Am I not in on the joke?
Re: Singular ‘They’ Is Word of the Year
#3> turning either to invented pronouns like xe and zie
This made me pause...aren't all pronouns (and for that matter, words in general) "invented?" Are they (see what I did there...) just making a distinction between words that are adapted or modified from other words, and ones that aren't?
Re: Singular ‘They’ Is Word of the Year
#4This bit: Singular they was Word of the Year back in 1365, when it first appeared in English as a gender-neutral English pronoun. It won again in 1885, when it was praised in the Atlanta Constitution for triumphing over the ignorant opposition of grammarians and lexicographers. Reads like an Onion article. Am I not in on the joke?
Truth in advertising: The Web of Language Distinguished Usage Panel, charged each year with picking the Word of the Year, consists entirely of me.
Re: Singular ‘They’ Is Word of the Year
#5This bit: Singular they was Word of the Year back in 1365, when it first appeared in English as a gender-neutral English pronoun. It won again in 1885, when it was praised in the Atlanta Constitution for triumphing over the ignorant opposition of grammarians and lexicographers. Reads like an Onion article. Am I not in on the joke?
Black humor, I think. The author is ruefully noting that, while this usage has existed for hundreds of years, it manages to keep dropping out of fashion only to be reinvented in a new generation.
Re: Singular ‘They’ Is Word of the Year
#6I've never liked this, but I have to admit that logically, a mismatch in number is no worse than the mismatch in gender we get by using "he," which has the disadvantage of being annoying to many people. And I don't think efforts to make up a new pronoun are likely to succeed. Singular "they" might well be the future.
But if I could have my pick I'd go with "um."
Re: Singular ‘They’ Is Word of the Year
#7Scanned the article, can someone give me a solid example of how this is used in a sentence?
Re: Singular ‘They’ Is Word of the Year
#8Scanned the article, can someone give me a solid example of how this is used in a sentence?
"patrickfl didn't bother to read the article, as a result they were uninformed."
Re: Singular ‘They’ Is Word of the Year
#9I've had enough of this discussion! The new gender-neutral singular pronoun is thou! That's right, thou was the answer we were looking for.
Re: Singular ‘They’ Is Word of the Year
#10Scanned the article, can someone give me a solid example of how this is used in a sentence?
"Alex has decided that they no longer want to be addressed by a gendered pronoun, and has requested that we all refer to them as 'they' and 'them' from now on."
edit: I'd be interested in understanding why people find this very real scenario to be so downvote worthy. Is it because you find the idea of non-gendered pronouns upsetting, or because you think my example is unrealistic for some reason? Or something else entirely?