LL-L "Morphology" 2003.02.14 (03) [E]

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From: Críostóir Ó Ciardha <paada_please at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Morphology" 2003.02.17 (08) [E]


Ian wrote:

"Observations or thoughts anyone?"

What you raise is very interesting, as always. I think introducing "their"
in the apparently contradictory circumstances you mention - i.e., Arsenal
win their 12th Championship - creates a "camaraderie" resonance in the
sentence, and that while US English has been using this construction for a
long time for precisely this reason, British English (specifically) has only
just cottoned on.

You're correct about Irish usage, though. I think the use of "their" is more
prevalent on RTÉ when Gaelic games are being discussed - whenever English
soccer teams are talked about, "it" is the preferred form - i.e., "Can Man
United wins its next treble?" This is because English soccer teams are
"foreign" (no matter how much support they have in Ireland), with the neuter
pronoun evidencing this.

Or at least - that's my overly-pedantic interpretation. Six One News tonight
will tell me if I'm wrong.

Go raibh maith agat

Criostóir.

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From: Stan Levinson stlev99 at yahoo.com
Subject: LL-L "Morphology" 2003.02.17 (08) [E]

Ian,
Nice try, but it's just a very uncomfortable American
tendency to use "their" extended from sentences like
"everybody likes 'their' new clothes".  It seems "his"
is not PC, and "his or her" is too awkward.
Stan
--- Lowlands-L <admin at lowlands-l.net> wrote:
> From: Ian James Parsley <parsleyij at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Englishes
>..> However, my perception is that American itself
may
> even be changing. For example, I definitely heard
> the
> apparently grammatically contradictory 'Tampa Bay
> wins
> their first Championship' last month. On the other
> hand, this could merely be confusion, as American
> teams of course often have a plural name ('The Tampa
> Bay Buccaneers win their...').
>
> I must say most languages I know prefer the singular
> in such cases:
> 'Die Regierung ist...'
> 'PSV is...'
>
> Observations or thoughts anyone?

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