[Ads-l] Word of the Year 2015: singular "they"

[Neal Whitman]

In fact, I tweeted a moment later:

1 change for the times tho: "DON'T use they to refer to a specific, named individual. Use he or she instead" needs trans exception #woty2016


> On Jan 9, 2016, at 4:24 PM, Andrea Morrow <aandrea1234 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Andrea Morrow <aandrea1234 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Word of the Year 2015: singular "they"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> A few of Neal's rules don't match some of the usage I've observed among my
> trans daughter's friends. For instance, assuming that someone who is
> pregnant identifies as female can be problematic. My daughter has friends
> who are nonbinary and who identify as male who have uteri and say they may
> want children someday. Neither would like to be called by a female pronoun.
> 
> Similarly, just knowing  someone does not mean you can call them he or she.
> Many nonbinary people prefer they, regardless of how they appear compared
> to conventional gender norms. One of my daughter's friends is Ashley, a
> very feminine-presenting nonbinary person. They use and prefer they, and
> would correct you for using she.
> 
> Sent from a mobile device
>> On Jan 9, 2016 3:51 PM, "Ben Zimmer" <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Word of the Year 2015: singular "they"
>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> Here's a working link to Neal's great piece:
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/dos-and-donts-for-singular-they/
>> 
>>> On Sat, Jan 9, 2016 at 10:30 AM, Neal Whitman wrote:
>>> 
>>> As I tweeted a few moments ago:=20
>>> 
>>> #woty2016 Maybe a good time to put my 2010 @VisualThesaurus bit on
>> singular "=
>>> they" out there again: visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/=E2=80=A6
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Jan 9, 2016, at 6:50 AM, Salikoko S. Mufwene wrote:
>>>> =20
>>>> Are we likely to see/hear "singular /they/" agree with the verb in
>> the=20
>>>> same way as /he/ and /she/? Is the following construction likely to
>> be=20
>>>> considered acceptable:
>>>> =20
>>>> /I wonder whether there is a person here that claimed _they knowS_
>> the=20
>>>> answer.
>>>> =20
>>>> /Or will "singular /they/" continue to be referentially singular but=20
>>>> syntactically plural?
>>>> =20
>>>> Sali.
>>>> =20
>>>>> On 1/9/2016 5:29 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>>>>> Here's my writeup of the WOTY voting for Vocabulary.com:
>>>>> =20
>> http://www.vocabulary.com/articles/wordroutes/they-won-gender-neutral-pro=
>>> noun-is-2015-word-of-the-year/
>>>>> =20
>>>>> The selection is also receiving plenty of media coverage...
>>>>> =20
>>>>> http://time.com/4173992/word-of-the-year-2015-they/
>> http://www.businessinsider.com/the-word-they-named-2015-word-of-the-year-=
>>> 2016-1
>> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/08/donald-trump-may-w=
>>> in-this-years-word-of-the-year/
>> http://www.inc.com/chris-matyszczyk/the-new-word-of-the-year-is-going-to-=
>>> upset-some-people.html
>>>>> =20
>>>>> =20
>>>>>> On Fri, Jan 8, 2016 at 8:41 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>>>> The Word of the Year for 2015 is "they" used as a gender-neutral
>>>>>> singular pronoun. "They" was recognized by the society for its
>>>>>> emerging use as a pronoun to refer to a known person, often as a
>>>>>> conscious choice by someone rejecting the traditional gender binary
>> of
>>>>>> "he" and "she."
>>>>>> =20
>>>>>> Read the press release:
>> http://www.americandialect.org/2015-word-of-the-year-is-singular-they
>>>>>> Shortcut to PDF: http://bit.ly/ADSWOTY15
>> 
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> 
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