{"id":223223,"date":"2010-01-24T13:35:08","date_gmt":"2010-01-24T18:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=2072"},"modified":"2010-01-24T13:35:08","modified_gmt":"2010-01-24T18:35:08","slug":"singular-they-trudges-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/223223","title":{"rendered":"Singular they trudges on"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over on ADS-L, Larry Horn read his NYT<\/em> carefully<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

One additional highlight of the Virginia\u00a0Heffernan guido\/guidette<\/em> piece<\/a> in today’s N. Y. Times Magazine\u00a0section\u00a0is a nice example of a plural pronoun with\u00a0singular sex-known but indefinite antecedent, a\u00a0phenomenon we’ve discussed in the past. Here’s\u00a0Sammi Sweetheart, describing the role she plays\u00a0in the MTV Reality show, “Jersey Shore”, as\u00a0quoted by Heffernan<\/p>\n

“A Guidette takes really good care of themselves,\u00a0has pretty hair, cakes on makeup, has tan skin,\u00a0wears the hottest heels.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Larry went on to cite some further examples of non-epicene singular they<\/em> (with indefinite antecedent) from his files:<\/p>\n

\n

(1) No mother should be forced by federal\u00a0prosecutors to testify against their\u00a0child. (Monica Lewinsky’s\u00a0mother’s attorney)<\/p>\n

(2) Someone left their sweater. (note left in Yale classroom next to what was obviously a women’s sweater)<\/p>\n

(3) Who knows what crazy idea she’s going to come\u00a0up with. \u00a0She may have met someone in the\u00a0checkout line at the grocery store and she’ s\u00a0planning to marry them. (Garrison Keillor monologue, Prairie Home Companion, 3\/9\/02)<\/p>\n

(4) I told the guys this is the team. \u00a0But I do\u00a0have a nucleus of guys who will be on the ice\u00a0more. I plan to sit down with each individual and\u00a0line out their role. (John Cunniff, new coach of New Jersey Devils’\u00a0(all-men’s) hockey team, on being asked about\u00a0personnel changes; NYT 11\/ 8\/89)<\/p>\n

(5) I challenge you to find a lesbian who doesn’t\u00a0want to see themselves portrayed on television. (actress on Showtime’s The L-Word)<\/p>\n

(6) \u00a0WHO WEARS WHITE DURING THEIR PERIOD? (from a panty-liner commercial on television)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It’s been a while since we looked at such cases on Language Log. Here’s an indefinite-antecedent case:<\/p>\n

\n

GP, 1\/3\/06: Singular they<\/em> with known sex (link<\/a>):\u00a0any girl<\/em> … they<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

plus two with definite antecedents of known sex:<\/p>\n

\n

GP, 10\/21\/04: They are a prophet (link<\/a>):\u00a0this person<\/em> [unknown writer of graffiti in a males-only toilet stall] … they<\/em><\/p>\n

GP, 4\/26\/07: Virginia, who said they would come (link<\/a>):\u00a0Virginia<\/em> … they<\/em> etc.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I generally find definite-antecedent examples comprehensible but grammatically\u00a0bizarre. \u00a0But practice might be changing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over on ADS-L, Larry Horn read his NYT carefully: One additional highlight of the Virginia\u00a0Heffernan guido\/guidette piece in today’s N. Y. Times Magazine\u00a0section\u00a0is a nice example of a plural pronoun with\u00a0singular sex-known but indefinite antecedent, a\u00a0phenomenon we’ve discussed in the past. Here’s\u00a0Sammi Sweetheart, describing the role she plays\u00a0in the MTV Reality show, “Jersey Shore”, as\u00a0quoted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4149,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}