Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jared Lardo on August 12, 2009 at 6:40pm

It's a gender-cheat. Or is that sex? Whichever.

Anyway, it's used to avoid excluding or unnecessarily specifying either grammatical gender. The issue of inappropriately pluralizing the singular is less destabilizing than the stabilizing brought in by not excluding or unnecessarily specifying either grammatical gender. Not that I'm supporting this; it's completely easy to deal with the duality of "him or her", "his or her self", and "he or she".

Permalink Reply by Jason Spicer on August 12, 2009 at 7:24pm

We're not comfortable referring to a person of unknown sex (sex accrues to people, gender accrues to language, but nobody knows or cares about that distinction anymore) with the neutral gender pronoun "it", so we weasel into the plural to avoid leaving anybody out while also avoiding the cumbersome construction "he or she" or the hellishly uncouth "s/he".

Technically, it's not correct. It is, however, in common usage, and an acceptable compromise to many learned people who might otherwise be said to "know better". It is a little weird, and sometimes it sticks out like a sore thumb, but I appreciate it for what it is: a creative, simple approach to greater inclusivity in English. I usually use it myself, and I suspect it can be gotten away with in scholarly writing, subject to the prior approval of the instructor.

Personally, I think it's more jarring to hear, "They looked at all the options, but none was acceptable." None is singular, standing in for "not one", but it just doesn't sound right at all to me.

And all caps is painful to read. Lower case is a relatively modern innovation, along with spaces between words and punctuation, but now that we have these tools, we should use them in polite company. Just be thankful there is no middle case.

Permalink Reply by A Former Member on August 12, 2009 at 7:35pm

Personally, I think it's more jarring to hear, "They looked at all the options, but none was acceptable." None is singular, standing in for "not one", but it just doesn't sound right at all to me.

I think you are wrong here Jason. Your sentence should be written: They looked at all the options, but none were acceptable.

Simplify the sentence: [The] options were not acceptable.

What your sentence is essentially saying is: They looked at all the options, but none (of the many) were acceptable. I think it is fine to use were here because the adjective acceptable is a standard being applied to all of the options, not just one.

You could also write the sentence like this: They looked at all the options, but not a single one presented was acceptable.

Someone correct me if you think I'm wrong.

Permalink Reply by A Former Member on August 12, 2009 at 7:48pm

Also, don't forget that in English, we put an "s" on the end of a verb when used with a singular subject, but no "s" when used with a plural subject, or at least in many cases. I'm not sure I can fully recall this rule.

Rob walks in the morning.
They walk in the morning.

He talks quite a bit.
Bob and Laura both talk quite a bit.

She spends money like there is no tomorrow.
Steve and Mike spend money like there is no tomorrow.

In this example, The Anderson family spends money like there is no tomorrow, the verb spend does have an "s" at the end because the Anderson family is a single unit, or singular subject, in this sentence. However, The Andersons (plural) spend money like their is no tomorrow, because in this case, I am speaking of many individual people make who up the family unit.

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