Yes, the traditional usage has been predominantly masculine, but in modern usage, "they" is the dominant form. See my reply at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Gender-neutral_language#She_befo...
Ryan Kaldari
On 12/28/11 4:50 PM, Theo10011 wrote:
On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 6:06 AM, Ryan Kaldari <rkaldari@wikimedia.org mailto:rkaldari@wikimedia.org> wrote:
I responded to the inquiry and replaced all the gendered pronouns at issue with singular they. On a related note, I'm very disappointed to learn that the Chicago Manual of Style (which provided the basis for the original Wikipedia Manual of Style) has stopped recommending the use of singular they. As the use of singular they has been steadily increasing since the 1960s (Pauwels 2003), it is curious that the Chicago Manual would be moving backwards. I have to wonder if there was some sort of political pressure involved. On a positive note, the 2011 edition of the New International Version Bible now uses singular they.And I defended the reverting editor. (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk%3AGender-neutral_la... http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk%3AGender-neutral_language&action=historysubmit&diff=468184170&oldid=468179760).
It's an interesting topic, but the original editor seems to be taking a political stance, which the reverting editor might not know about. The usage of Generic Antecedents, by definition require the gender to be unknown or irrelevant. The traditional usage has been predominantly masculine.
I am not a native English speaker so I might be wrong on this, but the article is using Generic Antecedents. The approach taken in English language has certain usage hard-wired in the brain. There has been a long standing argument about the political undertone about its usage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_antecedents#Political_opinions).
What Kaldari did, while ideal to avoid any conflict or debate, is debatable in the grammatical sense. The usage note in Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/they) and other sources (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magazine/26FOB-onlanguage-t.html?_r=2) dispute usage of "singular" they as a gender neutral singular pronoun rather than a plural pronoun. The usage note mentions "This increased use is at least partly impelled by the desire to avoid the sexist implications of he as a pronoun of general reference."
I'm sure Dominic can correct me if I'm wrong on this one.
Regards Theo
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