Comment by throwaway98797
5 years ago
“They” is historically understood to be plural. Some information fidelity is lost if “they” can mean multiple people and a person.
Language is hard, so I understand the need for compromise. “Zee” could be used to avoid gender centric labeling while maintaining language clarity.
Historically understood to be plural by you.
Actual-historically, from 1375, not so much.
https://public.oed.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-singular-they...
That is not true. Singular they has been in use as long as plural they. It has always been understood to be usable in either situation.
I'm sure there are examples, but in common use it is understood to be plural and has been used that way in all writing for a long time.
That is not correct
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they#Usage
> They with a singular antecedent goes back to the Middle English of the 14th century... and has remained in common use for centuries...
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> I’m sure there are examples, but in common use it is understood to be plural and has been used that way in all writing for a long time.
It is grammatically plural, but it has been accepted for semantically singular use since long before the Victorian effort to impose Latin-inspired rules on English usage which failed to eradicate it despite intense effort. (Victorian prescriptivism did have some good effects — regularized spelling FTW — but trying to eradicate clear and useful usages like singular “they” was one of its less-well-considered, but fortunately also less-successful, efforts.)
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