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As a non-english native, I didn‘t know that. I thought „they“ always meant more than one. What‘s the reasoning if you know the gender? How to differenciate betw
by JanSt 7y ago
As a non-english native, I didn‘t know that. I thought „they“ always meant more than one. What‘s the reasoning if you know the gender? How to differenciate between a group and a person whose gender is unknown?
- sarvind 7y agoIt's not like words cannot be overloaded. Lots of languages use the plural form to show respect or politeness, or regard somebody with esteem (like the royal "we") for instance.
- danielscrubs 7y agoBut in this case it would lead to loss of information (singular or plural). I’d prefer he/she too or even a completely new word.
- AgentME 7y agoHaving more information isn't always better. Imagine if our language had pronouns that told you the race of the person, or whether they had a beard or not. A culture that primarily used pronouns like these would probably develop very strong arbitrary associations related to race or beards. If people were familiar with alternatives, plenty would be uncomfortable with one of these details always being packed in to references to them.
- danielscrubs 7y agoWell, always using those words would say something about the culture, not the language. In my language journalists created a new word for it that was met with resistance first, but it doesn’t corrupt another word and it has been added to all dictionaries and is used heavily.
- r721 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
- JanSt 7y agoThanks, that's interesting. "Every one must judge according to their own feelings." That's a nice example on how it can be used. Most of the older examples include "every" or "any" before using they. I think I need to study that part of the language as (at least in some situations) it seems like a nice way to get around using a generic form.