On 2020-07-02 17:47, Piper Thunstrom wrote:
On Thu, Jul 2, 2020 at 12:16 PM MRAB <pyt...@mrabarnett.plus.com> wrote:
> Here's an article on singular 'they':
>
> https://public.oed.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-singular-they/
>
> TL;DR: It's not a recent usage; it was OK in 1375.
Forgive me for not giving a detailed play by play of 15 years of
experience specifically as a writer and editor.
Over the last handful of decades, singular "they" has been explicitly
taught as inappropriate. My own college writing classes (only 10 years
ago now) included this specific piece of advice.
In terms of modern English vernacular, singular "they" has been
continuously and rigorously treated as inappropriate.
Those who prefer singular "they", myself included, point to references
very much like yours as evidence that it has a long history of usage.
But until only the last few years, the popular style guides explicitly
forbade it.
I hope that helps you understand.
It's also like saying that you shouldn't split infinitives ("to boldly
go") because Latin doesn't (and can't), or that the copula "be" should
be followed the nominative case ("It is I", not "It is me") because
that's what Latin does (on the other hand, French says "C'est moi", not
"C'est je").
English isn't Latin.
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