the three linguistics papers to read about singular they (morphosyntax)
Bjorkman, B. M. (2017). Singular they and the syntactic representation of gender in English. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 2(1). Open access link
Konnelly, L., & Cowper, E. (2020). Gender diversity and morphosyntax: An account of singular they. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 5(1). open access link
Conrod, K. (2022). Abolishing gender on D. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique, 67(3), 216-241. Open access link
in chronological order because these papers are all basically responding to each other; this papers focus on the (morpho)syntax and semantics of english singular 'they' referring to specific people (like they/them pronoun-users).
if you like posts like this, let me know! i'll give "three linguistics papers to read about (topic)" every once in a while based on interest
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Singular they has become the pronoun of choice to replace he and she in cases where the gender of the antecedent â the word the pronoun refers to â is unknown, irrelevant, or nonbinary, or where gender needs to be concealed. Itâs the word we use for sentences like Everyone loves his mother.
But thatâs 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. Hereâs the Middle English version: âHastely hiÈed eche  . . .Â ĂŸei neyÈĂŸed so neiÈh . . . ĂŸere william & his worĂŸi lef were liand i-fere.â In modern English, thatâs: âEach man hurried . . . till they drew near . . . where William and his darling were lying together.â
Since forms may exist in speech long before theyâre written down, itâs likely that singular they was common even before the late fourteenth century. That makes an old form even older. {read}
Plot of the Poem
The romance opens (and returns later) in the Kingdom of Sicily and Apulia. The author displays considerable intimacy with the geography of this Norman kingdom.[31][32]
King Embron and his queen Felise have a baby son, who is kidnapped and raised by a kindly wolf who knew the kingâs brother was aiming to kill the child.[33] The wolf was in truth a prince of Spain, transformed by an evil stepmother.[34] The child is discovered one day and adopted by a cowherd as his son âGuillaumeâ.[35][33] He is of great prowess and draws the notice of the emperor of Rome, who brings Guillaume to court as the valet to his daughter Melior. They fall in love with each other,[36] but she struggles with the unknown origins of her valet.[37][38] And then, his prowess becomes even more renowned after Guillaume is instrumental in defeating the Saxons.[39]
The group reaches war-torn Apulia, where Guillaumeâs sister Florence remains. The invading Spanish king was scheming to marry his witch-wifeâs son Brandin to Florence.[42] The group cross the Strait of Messina and arrive in Palermo (then capital of the Norman Kingdom of Apulia and Sicily[43]). The city is at war, defended by King Embronâs widow (Guillaumeâs mother) against the military invasion by the King of Spain (Alphonseâs father). When Guillaume arrives in the guise of a deer, the Queen realizes this must be the deliverer of their sorrows, but she and her son do not recognize each other,[b] as Guillaume has never known his origin. Guillaume accepts aiding the defense and asks for armament. Then the kingâs warhorse Brunsaudebruel[c][d], which never let any man beside its master ride it, is brought to Guillaume and now recognizes him.[49] The benevolent werewolf is disenchanted and marries Guillaumeâs sister.[9]
I've occasionally seen it stated that singular they should take singular agreement - that is, "they is" rather than "they are", and on very rare occasions I have seen it used that way. I often wonder if that will eventually come to be standard (themself has already become acceptable for some speakers of English)
So, poll! Do you ever use singular agreement with singular they? If it matters for you, specifically referring to the nonbinary use - that is, they referring to a specific person (as opposed to referring to words like "someone")
In your speech, does singular they take singular agreement?
Yes, always
Yes, frequently
Yes, sometimes
Yes, but infrequently
Very rarely
Never
Not applicable because my dialect doesn't distinguish singular and plural verbs
Our governments worry about things that aren't important, that aren't real problems, just so we'll forget their lousy record and the real problems.
The Quebec government is ruining our province in terms of health, education, and the protection of vulnerable people. They make authoritarian decisions (or threaten to do so) like special laws to prevent strikes (caused by their shitty management), bills to prevent things that aren't even problems (street prayers, saying "bonjour-hi" (or just, the english language in general) in a store, etc.), building highways that have been proven by studies (that cost millions) to be useless, and stubbornly insisting on not giving a damn about the environment and public transportation.
And now, banning inclusive writing in government communications.
Why?
Because it's not a real problem. Because people will "agree" with them. Because "it's woke to say "iel" (singular they) and woke people are all snowflakes." Because people will focus on that instead of the shitty records the government is having.
Without realizing that step by step, the Legault government is becoming more and more authoritarian, and that's not something we should be okay with. We can feel Trump's influence on our politicians' agendas.
Inclusive writing has been increasingly used for over fifteen years. It's been adopted in everyday life and it legitimizes the existence of trans and non-binary people. And that scares the government. They'll pretend it confuses people, when it's quite the opposite: they're annoyed by the fact that it confuses the people less and less.
parce que c'est pas un vrai problĂšme. parce que le monde va "ĂȘtre ben d'accord" avec eux. Parce que "c'est woke de dire "iel", pis les wokes sont toutes des snowflakes". Parce que ce monde lĂ va focusser lĂ -dessus au lieu du bilan de marde que le gouvernement nous produit.
sans se rendre compte que pas aprĂšs pas, le gouvernement legault devient de plus en plus autoritaire, et ce n'est pas quelque chose qu'on devrait ĂȘtre correct avec. On sent l'influence de trump dans l'agenda des politiciens.
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I'm so confused by "amount of" confusion regarding singular they, in particular because we don't actually use pronouns to establish how many of something we're talking about.
"I saw a dog! They were playing with a ball."
"There were multiple dogs?"
"What? No. I saw *A* dog."
If I were talking with a group of five friends, and Alan preferred "they", I'm only likely to ever use singular they for Alan if I specify them first.
Unless I'm referring to all five, I'm going to need to specify who I'm talking about, be it one or more people, anyway.
Basically, I don't think the problem is singular they.
I think the problem is basic English comprehension.
I have encountered this version of the idiom often. No one I have asked about it appears to have difficulty understanding that itâs about people having different preferences, more or less. No one I asked even brought up the use of the word âtheirâ paired with the singular âeach.â
Even people who seem against the use of singular they had no problem with the idiom. People continue to baffle me.