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What are you talking about? The use of the third person singular gender-neutral "they" is very specific. It's just convenient. In fact, I wish English had a dif
by jinushaun 15y ago
What are you talking about? The use of the third person singular gender-neutral "they" is very specific. It's just convenient. In fact, I wish English had a different word instead of recycling "they", which is technically a third person plural pronoun. I don't stop using he or she.
- tomp 15y agoThat's exactly what I'm talking about. Making language worse/harder to use in the name of gender equality (or any political agenda, really) is inappropriate. I wish there was another word too, but some of the problems would remain the same. That is, I sometimes get the feeling that the use of "he" to refer to a non-specific (could be male or female) third person is frowned upon, and the only alternatives are "he/she", "(s)he", "he or she" or "they", all of which are longer.