4 ms·

This may be right, but it does not sound right.

by g4k 11y ago

dang 11y ago
It doesn't sound right because the username includes "patrick", which implies a "he". Singular "they" doesn't replace "he" or "she" when gender is known. It sounds a bit more natural if you say "That user didn't read the article, so they were uninformed."
- warfangle 11y ago
  > Singular "they" doesn't replace "he" or "she" when gender is known. It does when the gender identity of the subject is known to be neither he nor she!
- warfangle 11y ago
  > Singular "they" doesn't replace "he" or "she" when gender is known. It does when the gender identity of the subject is known to be neither he nor she!
untog 11y ago
Why not? This is not new at all, I've used it whenever I'm not sure of the gender of a subject for as long as I can remember.
Afton 11y ago
It's not right. There are linguistic restrictions on gender-neutral, singular 'they'.[1] When the referent is known, it can't be used (i.e. it's not about 'patrick' and 'he' matching up, it's about 'they' not being usable with a known person).[2] My favourite real-life example of it's usage is one in which we know that the gender is female, and we know it's singular: "If a mother wants to use the nursing room, they can just key in the code in their pamphlet". [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/comments/3cgbyv/limitations_of_singular_they_usage_singular_they/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/comments/3cgbyv/limitat... gives some good discussion [2] I can't help but feel that these restrictions are related to nondefinite contexts for "(negative polarity items)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarity_item]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarity_item]", like 'no-one' and 'any', where you can't say e.g. *I ate any cake but you can say: I didn't eat any cake but you can also use it in questions: Did you eat any cake? This seems related to usages like If someone comes, tell them to wait vs *If John comes, tell them to wait.

This may be right, but it does not sound right.

by g4k 11y ago

This may be right, but it does not sound right.

dang 11y ago

It doesn't sound right because the username includes "patrick", which implies a "he". Singular "they" doesn't replace "he" or "she" when gender is known. It sounds a bit more natural if you say "That user didn't read the article, so they were uninformed."

warfangle 11y ago
> Singular "they" doesn't replace "he" or "she" when gender is known. It does when the gender identity of the subject is known to be neither he nor she!
warfangle 11y ago
> Singular "they" doesn't replace "he" or "she" when gender is known. It does when the gender identity of the subject is known to be neither he nor she!

untog 11y ago

Why not? This is not new at all, I've used it whenever I'm not sure of the gender of a subject for as long as I can remember.

Afton 11y ago

It's not right. There are linguistic restrictions on gender-neutral, singular 'they'.[1] When the referent is known, it can't be used (i.e. it's not about 'patrick' and 'he' matching up, it's about 'they' not being usable with a known person).[2] My favourite real-life example of it's usage is one in which we know that the gender is female, and we know it's singular: "If a mother wants to use the nursing room, they can just key in the code in their pamphlet". [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/comments/3cgbyv/limitations_of_singular_they_usage_singular_they/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/comments/3cgbyv/limitat... gives some good discussion [2] I can't help but feel that these restrictions are related to nondefinite contexts for "(negative polarity items)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarity_item]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarity_item]", like 'no-one' and 'any', where you can't say e.g. *I ate any cake but you can say: I didn't eat any cake but you can also use it in questions: Did you eat any cake? This seems related to usages like If someone comes, tell them to wait vs *If John comes, tell them to wait.