Lots of practical and socio-political
factors affect language change. In my school days in the 1950’s and 60’s,
the taught convention was that impersonal references took masculine pronouns: “Every
student must do his best.” Attitudes about gender have since changed
dramatically. Gender-neutral alternatives were hardly satisfying: “Every
student must do his/her best.” “One must do what (s)he must.”
Writers avoided the singular whenever possible: “Students must do their
best.” The simplest solution was the one that had always been used in
informal situations: treating “they” as a singular, as well as
plural, pronoun. Today using “Everyone must do their best” is
widely accepted. Language finds solutions, and “singular they”
seems to be the simplest, easiest one, so I’d bet on its staying power.
By the way, didn’t a similar socio-political
thing happen a few centuries back with plural “you” becoming
singular as a polite alternative to singular “thou”? It proved so
successful that it drove thou/thee from the language.
Dick Veit
________________________________
Richard Veit
Department of English
From:
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007
11:41 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: more teaching questions
on grammar
Dear all,
Thanks to everyone who so kindly responded to my questions
on count vs. noncount nouns. Please let me know if you would prefer
that ongoing teaching questions not be directed to the list; I am teaching
grammar for the first time, and I remain very grateful for the chance to
vet questions here.
My new question involves the use of "they" or
"their" with singular nouns to avoid gender bias; e.g., Each student
should leave their assignment with the techer.
Obviously, recasting the noun as plural is the most elegant
solution. However, Longman and many other authorities, including _Chicago
Manual of Style_, accept the use of they and their, but Hacker's _Rules
for Writers_ rails against it, preferring the awkward phrasing of "he
or she" or "his or hers."
Here's my question: I side with the use of the plural
pronoun, but I don't know whether or not standardized tests on grammar and
usage disagree. Does anyone know whether the new SAT grammar section and
essay penalize for this usage?
Thanks,
Natalie Gerber
SUNY Fredonia