New York City is fining people for ignoring pronoun orders.

[rainbow]

They would say that though wouldn't they?

Well, they wouldn't be wrong for expressing their view, and you'd not be correct in criticising them.

[Scot Dutchy]

"Youse" is Glaswegian.

[JimC]

"Youse" is Glaswegian.

And also very Aussie...

[Scot Dutchy]

"Youse" is Glaswegian.

And also very Aussie...

Probably a few Glaswegians were transported there.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Yeah, but that wasn't the example. In that case, if you wanted to refer to Pat, you would write "Pat went out drinking with his mates. Later, Pat bought cigarettes".

Some in this thread have been arguing that you can always replace he or she with they without causing confusion. I've shown that there at least some cases where that is not possible. From that, I'm not implying that it would always be confusing, either...

Since you didn't specify, I don't know whether you're talking about me or not. I have acknowledged that it occasionally can be ambiguous--it's not perfect, but few things in language are. You can usually find exceptions and failures if you care to look for them. On the other hand, it serves the need for a gender neutral pronoun, and I think that it does so better than the artificial ones that have been proposed. Its usage as a gender neutral pronoun has history, and I don't think it draws as much attention to itself as the artificial ones.

"2015 Word of the Year is singular 'they' " | American Dialect Society

The use of singular they builds on centuries of usage, appearing in the work of writers such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen. In 2015, singular they was embraced by the Washington Post style guide. Bill Walsh, copy editor for the Post, described it as “the only sensible solution to English’s lack of a gender-neutral third-person singular personal pronoun.”

While editors have increasingly moved to accepting singular they when used in a generic fashion, voters in the Word of the Year proceedings singled out its newer usage as an identifier for someone who may identify as “non-binary” in gender terms.

“In the past year, new expressions of gender identity have generated a deal of discussion, and singular they has become a particularly significant element of that conversation,” Zimmer said. “While many novel gender-neutral pronouns have been proposed, they has the advantage of already being part of the language.”

Overall, I don't think that the singular "they" is a good answer to those relatively rare occasions where he/she is problematic.

I understand that, but do you have a better alternative?

[rainbow]

I understand that, but do you have a better alternative?

No, they don't. Their opinion isn't backed by any facts and we can ignore them.

[Brian Peacock]

They would say that though wouldn't they?

Well, they wouldn't be wrong for expressing their view, and you'd not be correct in criticising them.

And you'd not not be incorrect for not pointing that out.

[pErvinalia]

That's what Xhe said!

[laklak]

"youse" is also very New York and New Jersey, youse guys.

[Scot Dutchy]

Here is Rab C. Nesbitt in full Glaswegian flow:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4yeqSgN ... k7VoFiagfs[/youtube]

[laklak]

One thing I don't get - why would you refer to anyone directly using a pronoun? Somebody comes into the sandwich shop and says "I wish to be referred to as ZE". Well OK then, but if I speak to them directly I'm not going to say "ze", I'd say "you". Would you like lettuce and tomato on your sub? I might tell an employee "this sandwich is for ze", but otherwise why would it ever come up? I could just say "this sandwich is for that person there". Unless of course they don't want to be referred to as a "person" because they're otherkin of something equally as fucking stupid.

[pErvinalia]

Person is privileged against dolphins.

[laklak]

We don't serve dolphins here, so fuck off Finface.

[pErvinalia]

Well I support gay dolphin marriage. Gay dolphins are people too you know?

[JimC]

We don't serve dolphins here, so fuck off Finface.

But dolphin steak is so tasty!