everybody...their

[Bill Smith]

My favorites are those that use singular "their" when the gender is
specifically female (or male).  A student wrote, regarding Pope's "Rape of
the Lock", "A coquette does not remain with one man long enough to lose
their virginity."  And on NPR a speaker said, "Anyone who has borne a baby
knows that they...."  I have forgotten the specifics of the incident, also
on NPR, when the referent was necessarily male.

At 09:09 AM 4/17/01 -0700, you wrote:
>What about this one?  I have noticed during the past 20-25 years that the
>use of "Everybody (everyone, each, somebody, etc...) has THEIR own way of
>doing things" has steadily been replacing  "Everybody (etc)....HIS  own
>etc" even in "learned discourse"  I attribute this to the influence of the
>women's movement in making America more aware and sensitive to sexism in
>society in general and in the English language in particular.  I have
>tried to use "his/her" (clumsy as it is) as a way to preserve subject-verb
>agreement, and I notice some others use "her" as a sort of
>overcompensation; but with each passing year I see "their" picking up more
>momentum in all corners, even in Academia.  Has this been picked up on any
>"official radar?"  Is it in any usage dictionaries yet?  Are there any
>other grammar formalists out there who cringe like I do when they hear this?
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