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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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Facebook updated their status
Guest
1
2015/12/09 - 9:45am

Hi,

I keep getting these Facebook update messages in my email inbox. "Arnold updated their status". Shouldn't that be "Arnold updated his status"? Considering billions of people are receiving these updates, I think they should be grammatically correct, or they might start a new trend. Or am I wrong?

Thanks,

Andy

Robert
553 Posts
(Offline)
2
2015/12/09 - 10:28am

You are not wrong just by the fact that you have to raise the question.

It just so happens that I agree with you.  (Though this usage has been quite common for quite a long time.)

Ron Draney
721 Posts
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3
2015/12/09 - 12:48pm

"Singular they" is now entrenched. You can't say User @grumpycat updated his status because @grumpycat might be female (the internet celebrity of that name certainly is) and you can't tell with absolute certainty from the name alone. Any given Facebook account might belong to a man, a woman, or an organization.

If you don't accept singular "they", you'd have to insist on "User @somethingorother updated his, her, its or their status", which would become even more annoying in very short order.

Guest
4
2015/12/09 - 1:34pm

Ron Draney said: "Singular they" is now entrenched.

Indeed it is, even in the OEM. See this thread from a few months ago.

Robert
553 Posts
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5
2015/12/11 - 7:33pm

It is entrenched but in a very limited domain (namely that of impersonal references).  If you don't mind pub parable by way of illustrating that limitation:

Guy lames into a bar, all tears:  Buhuhu ...my wife wants a divorce!

Bartender: Sorry to hear. But on what ground can that be?  A super husband you are.

Guy (both hands in the air):  On ground of irreconcilable English, of all things !

Bartender:  Wha..what in the world can  THAT  be?  Your English is super articulate and super advanced as is!

Guy:   I can't figure.  I ask them to explain, but all they does is rolls up their eyes!   Buhuhu.

Guest
6
2015/12/14 - 4:26pm

This just in ... Washington Post Style Guide now accepts singular "they" (descriptivists take note). Looks like a done deal at this point.

Robert
553 Posts
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7
2015/12/14 - 7:51pm

Well, the recent spates of 'official approvals' for  singular they    are actually quite moot.  If it has been used properly for centuries  ( it has ) , then there is no point .   It's  like official approval for tomatoes to be used on pizzas.

The real issues are about the whens and the hows.  (Again rather like the art of pizzas.)   Will you use it seamlessly like Austen, Shakespeare, where no one should even need to notice?    Will you use it deliberately to guide your listeners away from the non-essential details of personal concerns?    Or will you use it to advertise your stands on gender neutrality, and risk whole controversies on political correctness?    Or worse, will you use it out of spite for people you consider backward, for example by calling your closest relatives   they, and risk yourself being considered reactionary and  out of step with the rest ?

deaconB
744 Posts
(Offline)
8
2015/12/14 - 11:28pm

Although 'they" was plural when English stole the word from Old Norse about 1200, it was being used as singular as well from the 1300s, and it wasn't until the 1800s that anyone complained.  I don't like it, but I'm wrong one here.

Guest
9
2015/12/16 - 3:40pm

It may turn out that your (singular) parable is prophetic.

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