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A further aside: the use of "you" (as opposed to "thou") arose as the result of the generalisation of the polite form. The use of the second person singular in,
by stan_rogers 16y ago
A further aside: the use of "you" (as opposed to "thou") arose as the result of the generalisation of the polite form. The use of the second person singular in, say, French (tu) or German (du) is restricted to the familiar (at least in polite society), and cannot be used across class or organisational hierarchical levels despite any actual familiarity. (English retains a similar structure in the use of "woman" versus "lady" -- females of both higher and lower status have, until very recently, been referred to using "lady".) In other words, dropping "thou" in the few special cases that allowed its use was a natural process of language change. The singular "they", on the other hand, is artificial, at least among people of my generation -- we already have "one", thank you very much.
- ostso 16y ago> The singular "they", on the other hand, is artificial, at least among people of my generation -- we already have "one", thank you very much. Huh? Singular "they" has little to do with "one" -- it's used as an alternative to "he"/"she" when the gender is unknown (like the Finnish "hän", for instance). It may or may not be artificial, but what would you use instead?
- hugh3 16y agoI usually find that one can rephrase one's sentences using "one" in order to avoid committing oneself to the gender of one's hypothetical individual. It can be awkward in many circumstances; eg turning "The President can choose his own staff" --> "If one is the president then one may choose one's own staff". Of course "The President may choose their own staff" sounds awkward as well. "His own staff" would have been standard English at just about any time in the last N centuries.
- epistemenical 16y agohttp://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?cat=27 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?cat=27