Re: Sometimes you just can't win

In article <gt5s05xkdf.ln2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
archmage@xxxxxxxxxx (Nate Edel) wrote:

Randolph Fritz <randolph@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 2007-11-13, David Friedman <ddfr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I think it's become more common during my lifetime, but I believe there
are lots of old examples of the usage. I still disapprove of it--it
feels wrong. I don't think there is a good solution; English
unfortunately doesn't have a suitable set of gender neutral pronouns.

Jane Austen used the neutral "they" almost exclusively. I don't think
anyone is going to be winning any arguments on English usage with her.

Well, not without a time machine.

I'm not fond of "they" as a gender-neutral pronoun, but it is considerably
less bothersome than the coinages like "zir" that some folks have tried to
introduce as an alternative, and it doesn't have the sexist conotation that
just using either "his" or "her" exclusively would.

"They" does seeem a bit casual; in formal writing, I'd expect to see "his or
her" spelled out.

In formal writing for an audience likely to be offended by the use of
"he" for "he and she," I would be inclined to write in a way designed to
avoid the problem.

I suspect there are several different issues here:

1. The inherent logic of the language. It's true that "you" is an old
plural now used for both plural and singular. But it carries its old
verbs with it--"he is" but "you are" and "they are." So it doesn't
produce the same clash as "they is."

2. What one is used to. While examples of "they" as singular gender
indefinite go way back, I don't think it was the norm in what I read
growing up, so to me "they" is a plural, and takes plural verb forms, so
"they" as gender indefinite with singular verb forms sounds wrong, and
with the plural verb form would be confusing.

Incidentally, did Austen use "they" with "is" or "are?"

--
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/ http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.
Published by Baen, in bookstores now
.

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