[Ads-l] The New Yorker Comma Queen on "they", part II

[Laurence Horn]

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/comma-queen-the-singular-their-part-two-a-gender-neutral-pronoun <http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/comma-queen-the-singular-their-part-two-a-gender-neutral-pronoun>

Following her earlier piece in which the self-anointed Queen of the Comma reveals her queasiness with third-person singular "they"/"their" forms, Mary Norris now addresses the outcome of our vote at the January ADS, bringing up the usual reductio:  If you call a person of fluid gender "they", how in the world are you to determine whether the agreement is singular or plural:

(at 0:55 of video)
Well, what *would* you say?  Would you say "They *is* here", or "They *are* here"?

Good question.  I'm sure the Queen stays up nights as it is worrying about her *second* person singular agreement, now that "thou" has disappeared from the language:  What is she to say each time she speaks to a singular addressee?  "You *is* here" or "You *are* here"?  Or, since she's both a Queen (hence entitled to partake in the royal "we") and an editor (entitled to partake in the editorial "we"), would she say "We *is* not amused" or "We *are* not amused?

In fact, in that earlier piece (http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/comma-queen-the-singular-their <http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/comma-queen-the-singular-their>), in bravely taking a stand against "Everyone took their seat" against the weak-kneed legions, the Queen does employ the royal and/or editorial "we" and somehow works out for herself (or for themself?) the verb agreement.  Distinguishing herself from her American Copy Editors Society (ACES) fellows, she writes:

Many ACES stalwarts—copy editors, journalists, grammarians, lexicographers, and linguists—stand ready to embrace the singular “their.” But not us.  We avoid it whenever we can.

I wonder how difficult it was for her to decide on "We avoid it whenever it can" over "We avoids it..."   

Choices, choices.

LH
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