(no subject)

[owlectomy]

I hadn't heard Geoff Pullum's ringing endorsement of singular "they" before. I'm a fan of singular "they," personally, but it's very convincing in how awful some of the alternatives sound:

A journalist can’t be so shy that he or she can’t bring himself or herself to go up to a stranger he or she sees and ask him or her to give him or her his or her opinion.’

Oh? 'He' is gender-neutral? Well--


‘Was it your father or your mother who hurt himself?’

Good enough for Jane Austen and W.H. Auden is good enough for me.

Comments

[ravenstormcrow.livejournal.com]

Singular "they" used to be standard English, or as standard as English got before the advent of Webster's Dictionary and similar. I've taken to using it myself, because I am also not fond of "sie," "zie," "hir," and similar "gender-neutral" constructions. Although I might still write "wo/man" or "God/dess" where appropriate.