actually, I think we're WINNING.
May. 13th, 2011 10:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotesseSo I was sure when I got a snotty email in my inbox, sent from one of my professors to the entire class, banging on about the use of "they" as a generic pronoun rather than "he," and calling the entire thing a grammatical error - the best part was when he lamented that soon the war would be "lost," and we wouldn't be able to enforce patriarchy on our own students - that if I was not the main target I was at least included. I'm the most vocal feminist in the class, certainly. And so I was sure that I'd be marked down, and I was sort of bracing myself to write letters and possibly contest the grade if that bit of sexist pedantry was my only sin - and then I opened my grades, and the bastard gave me an A. He never gives As! Sir, I'm confused.
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Date: 2011-05-13 03:03 pm (UTC)are you seeing a move to use "they" with singular verbs? Cuz in the texts I use I'm not seeing that. I like "they" as a shorter solution to "he or she", but I haven't seen a move to make it singular in written English yet.
In spoken English, of course, we do it all the time!
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Date: 2011-05-13 05:18 pm (UTC)http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/austheir.html
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Date: 2011-05-13 05:38 pm (UTC)I have occasion to use or refer to six or seven different English textbooks and writing textbooks in the course of a typical semester, and none of them have ruled it correct.
I guess the authors of those texts are part of the No It's Wrong movement that the article refers to, LOL.
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Date: 2011-05-13 08:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-13 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-13 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-13 07:05 pm (UTC)