Steven, the use of words like "each" and "every" always connotes the singular. There are appropriate ways of indicating the plural, such as the use of "all". If you wish to avoid gender issues you may use the passive form, or the impersonal "one".
I am sure you find no problem with constructions like:
Is everybody happy?
-or-
Every book is ....
You can always find writers who used peculiar grammar and awkward constructions, but I don't believe that is a good argument for voiding grammar. Many of these same authors had rather unusual spellings for various words, and I don't think that should be taken as license to misspell.
The real issue is the confusion between the meaning of the words gender and sex. Gender connotes any agglomeration of items; thus the word genus in taxonomy. Sex is one example of gender, but there are many more. In German, (along with many other languages) there are more than two genders -- masculine, feminine and neuter. But these do not necessarily connote the sex of the noun. For example, das madchen is German for the girl, yet it uses the neuter form of das. The impersonal mann is translated either as one or man, depending on context.
I suppose the point behind my remarks is that there are people who like to be victims, and pervert the meaning of words to prove their victimhood. Hence the person in Washington who was forced to resign for using the word "niggardly".
My comments are not derived from a political agenda. It is simply a matter of euphony. Using "their" as a singular possessive is the grammatical analog of scratching ones fingernails on a blackboard.
TTFN,
CTC |
