At 12:09 AM 7/18/2003, you wrote:
Dante Alighieri wrote:
Why are people so unwilling to use
"they" to mean "he/she"?
Well, to some people it seems ungrammatical, since "they" hasn't been used
as a singular pronoun until very recently, so you end up with the "wrong"
verb tenses. So when you say something like "They fall asleep as they
watch TV," it sounds very much like you're talking about multiple people.
-Mark
Well, the OED disagrees with them. The OED not only lists this as a
definition for "they":
Often used in reference to a singular noun made universal by every, any,
no, etc., or applicable to one of either sex (= 'he or she')
but also gives the first recorded usage of the above sense as 1526.
Personally, I think that gives the usage sufficient grammatical "correctness".
-----
Dante Alighieri
dalighieri(a)digitalgrapefruit.com
"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their
neutrality in times of great moral crisis."
-Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321