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Shakespeare is not good english. His work is old, and the language has evolved, and his work is poetry. Also, citation needed for using 'they' as singular. Apa
by gizmo686 14y ago
Shakespeare is not good english. His work is old, and the language has evolved, and his work is poetry.
Also, citation needed for using 'they' as singular. Apart from the fact that it very strongly sounds plural, one of my personal pet peeves with English is the fact that we do not have a singular plural differentiation in the second person. As long as we are re-working pronouns, lets not repeat that mistake.
When I am trying to be careful and gender neutral (for something that needs to be speakable, so no (s)he), I try to structure it to use either 'one' or 'that person' in place of (s)he.
- franklinho 14y agoWhile I was also taught that using "he" as a gender neutral pronoun was good english, it looks like that has fallen out of favor. Seems to be an artifact of older formally trained english teachers. http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30455/is-using-he-for-a-gender-neutral-third-person-correct http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30455/is-using-he... Using "he" has fallen out of fashion. Call me a purist though, but I still detest using "they". It doesn't seem right.
- Kudzu_Bob 14y agoIt isn't right. What it is is humiliating. And humiliation is the entire point.
- salahxanadu 14y agoI sincerely doubt anyone would ever have any ulterior motives like that. Is the whole world out to get you?
- Kudzu_Bob 14y agoGaslight much?
- astrange 14y agoVarious discussions here (by militant anti-prescriptivists): http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?cat=27 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?cat=27 and approval here: http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/dept-min/pub/legis/n41.html http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/dept-min/pub/legis/n41.html For the plural second person, try out my ancestral dialect's "y'all".