Moar death of the English language

[Hawkmoon]

This time brought to us by another representative of the LBGTXYZ contingent:

https://apnews.com/07045bc80e9c4acc895c4185515058e5

So this clown has decided that instead of the pronouns "he" and "him," it wants to be referred to as "they" and "them." Which is curious, because "they," "them" (and "their") don't say anything about gender, but are plural pronouns. So this person (?) apparently now self-identifies as a plural being. Maybe it's schizophrenic and suffers from multiple personality disorder?

I think what I find most distressing is that the Associated Press is going along with the idiocy, and using the plural pronouns to refer to the singular idiot.

[zahc]

Some uses of plural pronouns for the generic person are legitimate and have a long history.

"If somebody is sick, he should stay home"
"If somebody is sick, they should stay home"

The first was considered correct most recently, but the second is very old and is coming back.

Plural pronouns are used similarly in French, which doesn't have a "he/him"/she/her" distinction.

Not to legitimize people who think grammatical gender needs to be engineered...

[Hawkmoon]

Plural pronouns are used similarly in French, which doesn't have a "he/him"/she/her" distinction.

Huh? 


"He is tired" = Il est fatigué

"She is tired" = Elle est fatiguée

"They are tired" (all men) = Ils sont fatigués

"They are tired" (all women) = Elles sont fatiguées

[zahc]

I was talking about how vous and nous are technically plural but are routinely used where the grammatical number is singular or ambiguous. Like "they should stay home" in English. It's (ab)use of the plural. Which is becoming more common in English. Unless I'm wrong, "you" in English is technically plural. Then after everyone forgot it's plural, the sensible dialects invented "y'all" to fill the gap.

In French, the masculin became so generic as to consume the neutral, now there is no neutral in modern French. English was moving however slightly this direction also with use of the "generic he". But now it's moving the other way with adoption of they where he used to be used.

French has no equivalent of "her" or "him". Il and elle are used for both. SHE is cute: "ELLE est mignon" and I'm going with HER: "je vais avec ELLE". Not particularly relevant to the gender-plurality thing but is relevant when grammar nazis pounce on somebody for not properly making a distinction which doesn't even exist in other languages.