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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jbe who wrote (3211)	7/22/1999 4:03:00 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4711

On imply and infer, Webster's Third International broke the dam. I don't use that book, which is the only book ever written which I believe deserves to be burned. But there it is. On the singular use of "they," which you slyly point out, this is another older usage temporarily mislaid and now being rediscovered. In my case, I use it because I have reluctantly decided that if I keep holding the line on "he" and "his" including both genders I will be branded a misogynist yet again. The options are few and all unpalatable: either recast every sentence, use the British "one," which I find very awkward and distracting, or use "he or she," "s/he", "he/she," or "they." Of those options, I find they to be the least unpalatable. It is, I would point out, almost entirely members of your gender who have forced me to this decision. If you can persuade the grammar feminists to return to openly accepting the gender-inclusive use of "he," I will immediately and with delight abandon the use of they as a singular.