beesy
myspace.com/beesy_boo
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2005
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We have had some discussions about Darlie using "they" on the 911 tape:
00:01:19 FC: ...somebody came here...they broke in...
00:03:27 COl: ...ma'am...
00:05:ll FC: ...they just stabbed me and my children...
00:07:16 COl: ...what...
00:08:05 FC: ...they just stabbed me and my kids...my little boys...
Then later on the tape:
04:05:03 FC: ...ya'll look out in the garage...look out in the garage...they left a knife laying on...
Some people think this means she's jumping back and forth between saying there were 2 killers to just 1 killer. I think she's just using it as a singular "they", not as in more than 1 person. I found this:
The alt.usage.english FAQ
00:01:19 FC: ...somebody came here...they broke in...
00:03:27 COl: ...ma'am...
00:05:ll FC: ...they just stabbed me and my children...
00:07:16 COl: ...what...
00:08:05 FC: ...they just stabbed me and my kids...my little boys...
Then later on the tape:
04:05:03 FC: ...ya'll look out in the garage...look out in the garage...they left a knife laying on...
Some people think this means she's jumping back and forth between saying there were 2 killers to just 1 killer. I think she's just using it as a singular "they", not as in more than 1 person. I found this:
The alt.usage.english FAQ
- Gender-neutral pronouns
(Usage Disputes)
"Singular 'they'" is the name generally given to the use of"they", "them", "their", or "theirs" with a singular antecedent such as "someone" or "everyone", as in "Everyone was blowing their nose."(It does not refer to the use of singular verbs in such mock-illiterate sentences as "Them's the breaks" and "Them as has, gets." Any verb agreeing with a singular "they" is plural:"Someone killed him, and they are going to pay for it.") Singular "they" has been used in English since the time of Chaucer. Prescriptive grammarians have traditionally (since 1746, although the actual practice goes right back to 1200) prescribed "he": "Everyone was blowing his nose." In 1926, Fowler wrote that singular "they" had an "old-fashioned sound [...]; few good modern writers would flout the grammarians so conspicuously." But in recent decades, singular "they" has gained popularity as a result of the move towards gender-neutral language. For a defense of singular "they", with examples from Shakespeare, Jane Austin, and others, see Henry Churchyard's page: http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/austheir.html; But note that not all of us are as keen on singular "they" as Henry is. Asked to fill in the blank in sentences such as "A patient who doesn't accurately report ___ sexual history to the doctor runs the risk of misdiagnosis", only 3% of AHD3's usage panel chose "their". AHD3'susage note says: "this solution ignores a persistent intuition that expressions such as _everyone_ and _each student_ should in fact be treated as grammatically singular." An example from Fowler wittily demonstrates how singular "they" never seems to agree perfectly: "Everyone was blowing their nose"? "Everyone was blowing their noses"? "Everyone were blowing their noses"? Proposals for other gender-neutral pronouns get made from time to time, and some can be found in actual use ("sie" and "hir" are theones most frequently found on Usenet). Cecil Adams, in _Return of the Straight Dope_ (Ballantine, 1994, ISBN 0-345-38111-4), says that some eighty such terms have been proposed, the first of them in the 1850s. John Chao (chao@hoss.ee.udel.edu) was constructing a long FAQ on this topic: [...] http://www.aetherlumina.com/gnp/index.html. Discussions about gender-neutral pronouns tend to go round and round and never reach a conclusion. Please refrain. (We also get disputes about the use of the word "gender" in the sense of "sex", i.e., of whether a human being is male or female.This also dates from the 14th century. By 1900 it was restricted to jocular use, but it has now been revived because of the "sexual relations" sense of "sex".)
Source: [Mark Israel, 'Usage Disputes: Gender-neutral pronouns', The alt.usage.english FAQ file,(line 1601), (29 Sept 1997)]