everybody...their

[Dennis R. Preston]

Why is the "their" in the "Anyone who has..." quotation necessarily
"singular"? I often treat the saame item as singular and plural in
the same sentence For example, I suspect "Does anybody want to leave
their coat in here?" to be my most likely expression of that idea.

dInIs

>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?

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736