Steven Pinker says "they" and "they" are homonyms, so suck it. Plus check out these examples from the wikipedia page, so suck it some more.
- Eche of theym sholde ... make theymselfe redy. — Caxton
- Arise; one knocks. / ... / Hark, how they knock! — Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
- 'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother, since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear the speech. — Shakespeare, Hamlet
- I would have everybody marry if they can do it properly. — Austen, Mansfield Park (1814)
- That's always your way, Maim—always sailing in to help somebody before they're hurt. — Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
- Caesar: "No, Cleopatra. No man goes to battle to be killed." / Cleopatra: "But they do get killed". — Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra (1901)
4 comments:
It appears that the Caxton quotation is the quotation most on point as analagous to your usage of they're in the latest edition of Mr. Fuji.
Still, I'm dubious as to whether sufficient weight should be lent to this Caxton quoation, as it comes from an arcane and antiquated source.
Without citations to examples of modern and contemporary usage, your pre-emptive strike fails in my opinion.
Oogily ... boogily.
What he said.
if you think about the use of plural and/or formal pronouns in other languages, like vous, usted, etc., seems like it does make sense that 'they' have this alternative non-gendered meaning. ....
shit, man, i just looked up on
http://www.etymonline.com
'they'. it was originally MASCULINE plural demonstrative pronoun!!
Can we start using 'shey' now, to mean 'those women'?
The suffragists gathered at Seneca Falls, where shey declared their right to vote.
When the women's volleyball team finally won the Gold Medal, shey could hardly believe it.
My girlfriend is having a girls' night out. Shey are going dancing at Banana Joe's.
I like this idea.
Post a Comment