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Title : If I needed to follow John McWhorter's new rule, I would think of "they" as a nickname for the person, rather than a pronoun.
link : If I needed to follow John McWhorter's new rule, I would think of "they" as a nickname for the person, rather than a pronoun.
If I needed to follow John McWhorter's new rule, I would think of "they" as a nickname for the person, rather than a pronoun.
As we discussed here, yesterday, John McWhorter has proposed using the singular form of the verb with the pronoun "they" when it is used to refer to only one person.I'm writing a new post, not to repeat the discussion about whether that's a good idea, but because it seems as though it would be quite difficult to force yourself to use "bad" English, and I realized what I would do to make it easier. This is all assuming that I wanted or needed to use "is" and "has" and "wants" with "they." For that person, I would visualize "they" as a name.
I once listened to the audio version of a novel in which one of the main characters was named Yuu — "Earthlings," blogged here and here. (Buy it here, and you'll be sending me a commission.) The narrator pronounced Yuu, "you." I got used to hearing things like: "Yuu was the same age as me.... Yuu has been my boyfriend.... Yuu always sticks close to Natsuki...."
But if the pronoun loses the feeling of being a pronoun, hasn't the person who wants the "they" pronoun lost something? I'd be making the sound "they" but formulating the sound from a mind that was thinking — not a pronoun — but a noun, the nickname "They." (Or maybe I'd be visualizing a different spelling — like "Thay" or "Th'eh.")
It would be almost as if I had peevishly decided always only to refer to the person by repeating their name every time I referred to them. That seems rude, almost as rude as deciding never to refer to them. Of course, when speaking to them, it would be rude to use the third person, and I would only need to be perfectly ordinary to say "you," which I would always use with the plural verb, whether referring to them alone or grouped with others.
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As we discussed here, yesterday, John McWhorter has proposed using the singular form of the verb with the pronoun "they" when it is used to refer to only one person.
I'm writing a new post, not to repeat the discussion about whether that's a good idea, but because it seems as though it would be quite difficult to force yourself to use "bad" English, and I realized what I would do to make it easier. This is all assuming that I wanted or needed to use "is" and "has" and "wants" with "they." For that person, I would visualize "they" as a name.
I once listened to the audio version of a novel in which one of the main characters was named Yuu — "Earthlings," blogged here and here. (Buy it here, and you'll be sending me a commission.) The narrator pronounced Yuu, "you." I got used to hearing things like: "Yuu was the same age as me.... Yuu has been my boyfriend.... Yuu always sticks close to Natsuki...."
But if the pronoun loses the feeling of being a pronoun, hasn't the person who wants the "they" pronoun lost something? I'd be making the sound "they" but formulating the sound from a mind that was thinking — not a pronoun — but a noun, the nickname "They." (Or maybe I'd be visualizing a different spelling — like "Thay" or "Th'eh.")
It would be almost as if I had peevishly decided always only to refer to the person by repeating their name every time I referred to them. That seems rude, almost as rude as deciding never to refer to them. Of course, when speaking to them, it would be rude to use the third person, and I would only need to be perfectly ordinary to say "you," which I would always use with the plural verb, whether referring to them alone or grouped with others.
Thus articles If I needed to follow John McWhorter's new rule, I would think of "they" as a nickname for the person, rather than a pronoun.
that is all articles If I needed to follow John McWhorter's new rule, I would think of "they" as a nickname for the person, rather than a pronoun. This time, hopefully can provide benefits to all of you. Okay, see you in another article posting.
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