In Tom Hanks commencement speech to Harvard grads he urged to defend the truth.

Goodvibes

Goodvibes

under the southern cross I stand ...
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Gissie said:
I actually agree, however that just means my truth and your truth happen to be the same at this point. Not everyone has the same truth these days. Something to do with lived experience, or some such thing.
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and you are a climate change denier too, right?
 
d'ranger

d'ranger

Super Anarchist
30,821
5,892
Gissie said:
And d'ranger rides in with his pissant put down. Oh the horror, how can I sleep at night. 🤣
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It's too easy with you, it's like you have been one of the fellow dwarfs with grumpy for years. Don't lob softballs and I won't sock em.
 
G

Gissie

Super Anarchist
7,293
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d'ranger said:
It's too easy with you, it's like you have been one of the fellow dwarfs with grumpy for years. Don't lob softballs and I won't sock em.
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Sounds like your colonialist superiority is sneaking through with such judgement calls on others.
 
Israel Hands

Israel Hands

Super Anarchist
3,550
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coastal NC
tp#12 said:
public.oed.com

A brief history of singular ‘they’ | Oxford English Dictionary

OED ambassador Prof Dennis Baron turns to the OED to provide a brief history of the singular 'they' - from the 14th century to present day:
public.oed.com
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Quoting your article:
But that’s nothing new. The Oxford English Dictionary traces singular they back to 1375, where it appears in the medieval romance William and the Werewolf. Except for the old-style language of that poem, its use of singular they to refer to an unnamed person seems very modern. Here’s the Middle English version: ‘Hastely hiȝed eche . . . þei neyȝþed so neiȝh . . . þere william & his worþi lef were liand i-fere.’ In modern English, that’s: ‘Each man hurried . . . till they drew near . . . where William and his darling were lying together.’

You do see that while the blogger claims that the middle engish translated sentence "each man hurried...till they drew near" is a singular reference of they, in fact the sentence speaks of "each man" as though there were more than one. Thus collectively, each man is they...and, more importantly, the sentence states that they were...which is proper subject-verb agreement.

I like the way Tom Cunliffe puts it in his book Celestial Navigation. "Apologies to any women offended by my use of the masculine personal pronoun [throughout the book]...However, continuously using the phrase 'he or she' is tiresome, and I categorically refuse to insult my readers by using the plural pronoun for a singular case."
 
tp#12

tp#12

Anarchist
726
269
On the water
Israel Hands said:
Quoting your article:
But that’s nothing new. The Oxford English Dictionary traces singular they back to 1375, where it appears in the medieval romance William and the Werewolf. Except for the old-style language of that poem, its use of singular they to refer to an unnamed person seems very modern. Here’s the Middle English version: ‘Hastely hiȝed eche . . . þei neyȝþed so neiȝh . . . þere william & his worþi lef were liand i-fere.’ In modern English, that’s: ‘Each man hurried . . . till they drew near . . . where William and his darling were lying together.’

You do see that while the blogger claims that the middle engish translated sentence "each man hurried...till they drew near" is a singular reference of they, in fact the sentence speaks of "each man" as though there were more than one. Thus collectively, each man is they...and, more importantly, the sentence states that they were...which is proper subject-verb agreement.

I like the way Tom Cunliffe puts it in his book Celestial Navigation. "Apologies to any women offended by my use of the masculine personal pronoun [throughout the book]...However, continuously using the phrase 'he or she' is tiresome, and I categorically refuse to insult my readers by using the plural pronoun for a singular case."
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I like how you try and reduce Oxford English Dictionary Ambassador Professor Dennis Baron to a 'blogger' and his words to a 'claim' to make your point.

It sounds like you didn't understand or are unwilling to accept that they has been used in the singular for a long time. Sad for you.

No skin off my nose.
 
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