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

[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.