thoroughly individuated singular they

[Ben Zimmer]

On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 12:24 PM, Michael Newman wrote:
>
> My diss way back in the 1990s claimed that singular they added a generic
> sense to the referent. This (NSFW) Savage Love column has a letter (the
> third) where the writer's partner identifies as gender-neutral, and writer
> uses a singular they  as in
>
> One of our favorite things to do is for me to _____ their___
>
> I leave this sentence incomplete for any delicate sensibilities.
>
> The usage sounds unnatural to me (but it would as it completely violates my
> hypothesis) but so do the other pronouns proposed for non-cis-gender
> identified people. Still, worth noting.
>
> http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=3D18915314

Some interesting discussion of transgender pronominal usage on the
Colbert Report last night with guest Janet Mock:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/433117/february-18-2014/transgender-awareness---janet-mock

(discussion of "they" around 1:30, "they" and other pronoun options at 3:50)

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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