Re: [PATCH 1/4] Documentation: use singular they when appropriate

From: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
Date: Jun 9, 2021, 20:26 UTC
Message-ID: <60c123edcae35_aa2ee20886@natae.notmuch>
In-Reply-To: <87czsu98ar.fsf@vps.thesusis.net>

Phillip Susi wrote:

Show 16 quoted lines

> 
> Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget wrote:
> >> From: Derrick Stolee <dstolee@microsoft.com>
> >> --- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> >> +++ b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
> >> @@ -373,7 +373,7 @@ If you like, you can put extra tags at the end:
> >>  . `Acked-by:` says that the person who is more familiar with the area
> >>    the patch attempts to modify liked the patch.
> >>  . `Reviewed-by:`, unlike the other tags, can only be offered by the
> >> -  reviewer and means that she is completely satisfied that the patch
> >> +  reviewer and means that they are completely satisfied that the patch
> 
> Say wait a minute.  If that is a "singular they", then why was the "is"
> changed to "are"?

Great point. I doubt any linguist would be happy with:

  can only be offered by the reviewer and means that they is completely
  satisfied...

Unless we are in the context of African-American Vernacular English.

> I think that belies the fact that there is no such thing as a
> "singular they".

There is such a thing as singular they, but it's not what the proponents of this patch think [1]:

This is a good use of singular they:

  Everyone returned to their seats

This isn't:

  We thank the anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments

Cheers.

[1] https://ahdictionary.tumblr.com/post/147597257733/updated-usage-note-they

-- 
Felipe Contreras