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

From: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
Date: Jun 11, 2021, 16:00 UTC
Message-ID: <60c388a18b658_85c8208bf@natae.notmuch>
In-Reply-To: <790688e5-6816-9837-85e7-2fdbbdf24169@gmail.com>

Derrick Stolee wrote:

Show 7 quoted lines

> Singular "you" had a similar backlash in the 1660s as singular "they"
> is having in this thread, but singular "you" has lasted (and we use
> "thou" only to signify someone using old-timey language).
> 
> There is more of this in [1] and [2]
> 
> [1] https://public.oed.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-singular-they/

Let's see...

  In modern English, that’s: ‘Each man hurried . . . till they drew near
  . . . where William and his darling were lying together.’

Yeah, that grammatical singular "they" indeed, but with a semantic plural antecedent, so no, that's not what you are proposing above.

I'd say leave linguistics to linguists.

-- 
Felipe Contreras

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