Aug
4th
2016
Singular They · 6:49pm Aug 4th, 2016
Because people complain at me sometimes when I use it.
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David Silver · 337 views
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- Member Since 20th Dec, 2013
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David Silver
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David Silver
Joined 20th Dec, 2013 ·
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Seriously? People complain about it? It's better than the alternatives.
It was used in Undertale for the protagonist, and I don't remember many/any complaints about it. (Though I did see some people claiming it was because they were nonbinary, which is silly, they're clearly just supposed to be a blank slate you can safely assume to be whichever gender. Even the name is technically gender neutral.)
Edit: I'm not saying being nonbinary is silly, I'm saying imposing it on a blank slate protagonist is.
Agreed. What the hell, it's pretty basic English.
4131807 There are so many theories on what sexual identity that character must have. The passion is impressive.
A plural and singular "they" seems to be perfectly in line with singular and plural "you" to me. I've been using it for decades, and I get more negative reaction from using "guys" to describe a group of mix gendered people. (Usually outside of California, but still.)
4131856
I've actually used "you all" in place of a plural 'you'.
Personally, I think it sounds better spoken (at least without a southern accent) then "y'all". (And don't get me started on people spelling it "ya'll." The apostrophe replaces removed characters in a contraction.)
Well that was something.
Was quite enlightening i'd say.
Even if i didn't really understand the problem some people seem to have. I myself do use terms that are gender specific, but mainly just because of the familiarity. It isn't easy to just suddenly start changing terms you are used to to describe people and their gender as it is ingrained somewhat in you as you learn the language, and its pronouns for 'male' and 'female'. I wasn't even aware of any of this until about a few weeks ago when i came across a story that used the terms 'hir' and 'shi'. It was a bit odd to me and i thought they were just errors but they weren't.
The more you know.
4131913 If you communicate your meaning easily, you Englished well. Here is your cookie.
4131933 Why thank you!
images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/31500000/Random-MLP-pics-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-31520138-415-456.jpg
Have a hug as back payment.
mlpforums.com/uploads/post_images/img-3531861-1-big-hug-for-you.jpg
Also: encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcToYUxVH-W2uGEzM_HOZCR30iqc7gNbXOsL-5jqWsTfTdi4pE4q
4131866
Good heavens! misapostrophication of "y'all"? What is the world coming to? Next thing you know, those durned kids'll be texting "ul" instead!
4132182
ur crazy mang, dat wont hapn
4132184
I don't mind this at all, but it is somewhat destructive don't you think?
When we talk about words to describe the gender or sexuality of someone, people usually think of either; Male, or, Female. These two terms are common in the sense since 96% of the entire animal/human population is Heterosexual. Because of this fact, most find it odd to use words that either have no meaning to describe an "Identity," that has never existent throughout history until recent times.
Now, the difference between Sexuality and Gender is solid in their definition. One describes what you are born as (Male or Female) and the other describes what of the two Genders that you are attractive too.
When using something like Non-binary as your gender, you are inherently using a buzzword that has no meaning since the entire human population is Non-binary because both Men and Women are not totally feminine or masculine in the sense of these, two, descriptives. The best example of this fact is our ability to feel Empathy and Sympathy.
When talking about the word: They. It usually associated in use with singular terms in literature, common language and other. He does have a point that it sounds awkward to describe a group with words such as; he, she, her, him...etc, but when using it to describe someone as if it was their Gender Identity, it becomes a parody in of itself.
The reason I make this point is because calling only one person as "They," you are inherently making it a negative term. It brings into question the mental state of that person wanting to be called: They. Most people with common sense and a little bit of sympathy would feel pity for the person, thinking that he has some sort of mental disability like; Multi-Personality Disorder.
Of course, that's what most people would think, but they would keep it to themselves and move on their way. Those that reinforce that negativity is diluting the word into something that it is not, which is damaging to the English language if its inherent definition were to change to match true, singular adjective. If that were to happen, then every time we use the word, "They," to describe a group, then people who reinforce the definition of the singular adjective, would confuse the reader, making him or her think that there was only one person in the group that is the only one to be allowed to be called, They, while everyone else is just there.
Isn't that destructive?
4132543 To be perfectly honest, I don't much care about the gender bits. I just use they as a singular pronoun that works for male, female, or other.
What they prefer to be called doesn't matter when you use they.
"They left their phone behind." Man, woman, dog, alien with three sexes? All correct.
4132782 I don't really care either. I was mostly responding to the video. Who is a person that believes that 96% of the entire human population isn't straight and that all of them are a Racist, Sexist, trans homophobes.
Using "they" to refer to a single person is only appropriate when the gender is unknown, just like you only call a baby "it" when you haven't found out which it is yet. "They" is inherently plural, so when you use it to refer to a single, unknown person, you are actually referring to the group of people that might be who you mean. As a spelled-out example:
"They" is still plural. Only one of those two people left the phone behind, but you are referring to both of them because you don't know who it was. This is still true for cases where you don't know the candidates, but know that there was a person.
Words mean things. If you change the definition to suit yourself, communication fails.
4133097 I didn't change it. Language changes. That's how we know it's alive.
Bob's back.
Oh, how'd they do on their test?
He did just fine. They (the teacher) took one look at him and gave him an 'A'.
Awesome, we should go celebrate. Are they up for it?
You can go on for quite a while, and you're not a horrible person, except in this case for using perhaps too many damn pronouns! Use a name damn it!
4133135
If you know the original, core meaning of a word, you will find that all rational uses of it actually have the same meaning. For example, "wrought" means "caused to be". Wrought iron was formed, so it was caused to be the shape it is. Someone is "wrought up" because some outside influence has altered their emotional state, or caused them to be that way. Clear communication is impossible without a standard.
He...his. The second speaker already knows who is being talked about, so unless there is another person with Bob, this word gives the wrong meaning.
They is correct here, since the giver of the 'A' is an unknown person.
This is the worst misuse of they, since the sentence above clearly labels Bob as "he" and the teacher as "they". This sentence asks if the teacher is up for a celebration.
Y'know, it's stuff like this that's the reason my conlang doesn't gender its pronouns (or nouns, for that matter).
This has actually come up somewhat on this thread, where I use they for my three hermaphrodite elf-gods (though they don't care what pronouns are used to describe them), it for my completely genderless gods (of which I have a surprising number), all while using she for the tentacle monster from the depths of space that can occupy any reproductive role she wants, because she prefers the feminine pronouns. All of which brings me back to my first point.
4137791 And I just like using they. Welcome to the club!