Re: Gender neutrality and the multiple-personality third-person pronoun

[Sandy Harris <sandyinchina -at- gmail -dot- com>]

I've been staying quiet in this thread since indefinite 'they' has
been discussed
here before and is covered in the alt.english.usage FAQ,
http://www.alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxgender.html

However, since no-one else seems to be defending the use of 'they' as a
gender-indefinite singular pronoun, which I regard as entirely legitmate
usage, I'll jump in.

<Kenneth -dot- Nuckols -at- mybrighthouse -dot- com> wrote:

> Chris Christner wrote...
>
>>  ....
> > "Police hope the person who fired the shot will turn themselves in to
> > authorities."
> > ...
> > Rewriting the sentence (the usual workaround) isn't easy in this case.

Sure it is; there are half a dozen reasonable alternatives. See previous
messages in this thread, plus mine below.

> > Clear communications demand generic gender-neutral pronouns!

We have one, 'they'.
.
> > What would you have written if it had been your story?

I'm not certain what I'd have written myself. If I were copy-editing the
example sentece given, I might not notice any 'problem'. If I did,
I'd just make it:

   Police hope the person who fired the shot will turn themself in

> I don't know what the answer is, but I definitely think the time for a
> gender-neutral single personality pronoun has come.

Yes, but we have had one -- they -- for some time. The earliest
known examples in English are from the 1300s and it has been
used by writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Shaw,
and Kipling.

A Jane Austen scholar has a page on her frequent use of indefinite
they.
http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/austheir.html#X1x

One quote:

  Singular "their" etc., was an accepted part of the English language
  before the 18th-century grammarians started making arbitrary
  judgements as to what is "good English" and "bad English", based
  on a kind of pseudo-"logic" deduced from the Latin language, ...
  And even after the old-line grammarians put it under their ban,
  this anathematized singular "their" construction never stopped
  being used by English-speakers, both orally and by serious
  literary writers. So it's time for anyone who still thinks that
  singular "their" is so-called "bad grammar" to get rid of their
  prejudices and pedantry!

--
Sandy Harris
Zhuhai, Guangdong, China
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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