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> The last notable ban was Paul Graham for simply sharing their Mastodon handle. Paul Graham is a man, not a plural entity.
by zeveb 4y ago
> The last notable ban was Paul Graham for simply sharing their Mastodon handle.
Paul Graham is a man, not a plural entity.
- 0x44 4y agoSingular they predates singular you in the English language by about three hundred years.
- sanedigital 4y agoThat doesn’t mean the “they” here isn’t unclear. I wasn’t sure whose Mastodon handle Paul Graham shared. I certainly didn’t think OP meant he shared his own handle.
- edmundsauto 4y agoTo be perfectly pedantic, this should only be confusing if referring to the Mastadon employees. Otherwise, if referring to the non-person entity, singular or plural appropriate syntax would be “it”.
- blast 4y agoHow do you know that? I know singular they goes a long way back, but this is an extreme claim that I've never heard before.
- sammax 4y agoThey originated around the same time, but singular you was initially only used for addressing superiors/showing respect (using the plural second person pronoun as a singular for this purpose is still a thing in a bunch of languages), a few hundred years later “you” became the standard second person singular pronoun while “thou” fell out of favour.
- mproud 4y agoA very modern convention is now using “they/their” when a person may not be aware of someone’s preferred pronoun. And even still, I have also seen people abandon gendered pronouns entirely.
- distortionfield 4y agoIt’s also just far easier to use a plural pronoun to refer to a singular person to reflect the idea that you’re talking about their whole persona, brand, work, etc… and not just specifically the human being, IMO.
- culi 4y agoIt's also a very old method. In fact, he/she is a later evolution of the English language. "He/his" used to be more equivalent to "it/its". It wasn't until ~15th century that the modern "he/him" and "she/her" fully evolved. "They/them" meanwhile was in full use by the 14th century
- upsidesinclude 4y agoNo one speaks in middle english. Dead language rules and customs are irrelevant to modern language norms. People once walketh befide their mules, but now we gots lambos
- WaxProlix 4y agoAnd yet, pronoun ragers cleave to Olde Anglishe in an attempte to rectifye Ye langge. Sadge.
- culi 4y agoThis train of thought makes no sense. The fact that something originated in Old English doesn't at all mean it's dead. He/She also originated in Old English, just a little later. Should I make fun of people using he/him, she/her pronouns because they're "clinging to Olde Anglishe"? lol
- plusminusplus 4y ago"the suspect jumped in their car and fled the scene" In English the word can be used as a singular pronoun
- upsidesinclude 4y agoJohn jumped in their car... Right, so if you change it, then it's changed and it's different. Appreciate the clarification
- plusminusplus 4y agoYes, I suppose changing things changes them. Appreciate the redundancy.
- emsixteen 4y agoGood observation! Hope this wasn't an attempted, and failed, grammar 'correction'?