*shudder*
Ok, so if someone is talking about multiple people, and accidentally uses a plural pronoun where a singular one should be used, such as in the sentence "everyone went to the store and bought themselves a ham," I can forgive him. I would politely correct the usage, so long as it is approriate to do so, but the offense can be forgiven.
(If, however, the misusage is intentional, because he believes that the English language is sexist, and is trying to affect a grammatical revolution, then he can be cast in the Pit of Despair for all I care. We won't go into that, as my thoughts on this topic have been made abundantly clear.)
But, verily, when you use a plural pronoun when you are talking about one singular person, there is no word in elvish, entish, or the tongues of men for your stupidity.
To wit:
"This is Shirley Lin, who seems like they [sic] might be a girlfriend of Zedadias’"
There is only one rational reaction to this grammatical mangling: scream like Wilhelm.
(Irony of ironies, the first sentence of this post originally ended "I can forgive them". You guys never would have let me live that one down if that made it to press.)
Do other cultures that speak romance languages where practically every noun has a gender suffer from PC nitwits that constantly complain said language is sexist?
ReplyDeleteThis whole sexism in language thing drives me nuts. A word, like a rock, or a gun, or a Radioactive Top Secret Highly Experimental Thermonuclear Exploding Grelbin Device, is in and of itself harmless. It takes people with wills and intent for sexism to exist.
And 100 points to Dave for an extremely obscure Garfield and Friends reference.
ReplyDeleteI think people who speak romance languages don't suffer from the PC nitwit-ism, because they are used to the idea of words having gender that is different from human sexuality. In English, the only words that have gender are those that refer explicitly to people. Because of this, it's much easier to confuse "he" referring to male with "he" referring to people of both sexes.
Interesting fact: the German word for manliness (die Maennlichkeit) is grammatically feminine.
Ah, I love you Joe. You remind me of me...
ReplyDeleteDad