On "singular them".

[conuly]

I like singular them. English doesn't have a gender-neutral 3rd person singular plural, and "them" fits the slot nicely. I fully support the use of the singular them - if and only if it's the best way to cast a sentence.

Everyone passed their papers foward: this makes sense. Everyone can be construed as a plural, and it avoids "his or her".

So-and-so has won a prize, go congratulate them: this doesn't make sense. So-and-so is a person, even if we don't know so-and-so's gender. Why not say "So-and-so has won a prize, and should be congratulated"?

My current peeve, taken from neopets is "If you own a Bori, you can now paint them Starry.". Gah. First of all, you can paint "them" starry if you own one right now or not, just create/adopt a new bori and paint it. Secondly, the bori you own is NOT a them. It's a he or a she. This could've been avoided by adding "you'll be happy to know that" in the middle.

Comments

[genepool23.livejournal.com]

I think it would be perfectly suitable to call a Neopet an "It." People tend to personify animals and assign them gender pronouns but it is still acceptable to call an animal of unknown gender "it." Wouldn't the same hold true for digital "animals?"

[conuly]

I don't consider it acceptable to refer to animals with genders as it. Unless the animal has only one gender, like certain snails or worms.

[theshiversbaby.livejournal.com]

Do you mean *any* animal, or do you mean an animal that is also a pet?

For instance, would you find it unacceptable to refer to a squirrel, bird, or fish as "it"? I have no problem with this and can't see how someone could justifiably object to it, but if you do I'd like to hear why.

[conuly]

Any animal that comes in human sexes. Animals which only have one sex don't count, neither do animals with more than two, but any animal in a binary sex system is either he or she.

This also applies to female ginko trees, the ones which leave messy berries all around.