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LGBT News “They” dictionary entry as singular non-gendered pronoun

Discussion in 'Current Events, World News, & LGBT News' started by DecentOne, Sep 23, 2019.

  1. DecentOne

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    Out to everyone
  2. Gaetano

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    I mean, its just a fact isnt it?

    Nice to see some progress in these regressive times, no matter how small.
     
  3. beenthrdonetht

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    As a human I am all for non-gendered pronouns. As a linguist I bemoan the overloading of a pre-existing word. Celebrate real-world ambiguity but resist syntactic ambiguity!

    Just for curmudgeonly example, here is a real newspaper quote: "Officials say a Spirit Airlines flight leaving Las Vegas was briefly delayed after a passenger removed all their clothes while boarding and approached a flight attendant." [Washington Post, 30 July 2017]. When I first read it, I thought "their" referred to "Officials". Which led to an even more bizarre image than the sentence intended.

    Well, much as I deplore throwing singulars and plurals into a linguistic blender, I am more of a descriptivist. Language is what people say. And write. For example, "alot" looks like a mistake now, but I bet it will become as valid as "another".