Singular they

Question

"Each of the students in the accounting class has to type their own research paper this semester. "

My test book says that "their" is wrong in this sentence, as the word "each" should correspond to "his". But I'm confused... what about singular they?

The test book was issued in 1991 Oxford. Maybe it's outdated? I need to know if it right for nowadays US English.

Thank you in advance!

Elanguest · Accepted Answer

It's an age-old discussion. :) You may find this article interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they

RandomGuy · Answer

Olga Tatarinovawhat about singular they?

It’s correct, too.

Olga TatarinovaMaybe it's outdated?

No, just prescriptive. Semantically singular they has been in the language for several hundred years.

Dave_anon · Answer

Hi

In the UK, this usage took off in the 1970s, as a way of avoiding, e.g. 'Each student must have his own dictionary' (when half of the students are young women)

I don't often hear the male pronoun used as a generic form; and one way of avoiding it is to slip into the plural. I think it's perfectly OK

Dave

Olga Tatarinova · Answer

I have already read this article

Actually this article is the reason I have asked this question.
Is statement made in my test-book wrong or right? I an not a native speaker and an article has a lot of complex terminology. It's hard for me to understand what is the truth.

Elanguest · Answer

Don't worry too much about "truth" when it comes to language.

Language is changing all the time, so there is no absolute truth. "Linguists are artists trying to be scientists."

There are some things that are definitely "right" and "wrong" in English at this time in history. There are others that people claim are right or wrong because they are resisting the inevitable and natural change of language. Many others are simply a matter of opinion.

As to the original sentence, my opinion is that it sounds fine.

As you can see from the length of the article, there are many other opinions as well. The sentence structure is something you would very commonly hear used in normal speech though.

Enoon · Answer

Olga Tatarinova"Each of the students in the accounting class has to type their own research paper this semester. "My test book says that "their" is wrong in this sentence, as the word "each" should correspond to "his". But I'm confused... what about singular they?The test book was issued in 1991 Oxford. Maybe it's outdated? I need to know if it right for nowadays US English.Thank you in advance!

English occurs in many forms. One way of dividing it up is by register, the language needed and expected in a certain social setting, from the neighborhood kaffeeklatsch to a presidential debate. Another is by formality, ranging from the most informal street slang to Kofi Annan at the UN. There are more. It is often not possible to define right and wrong except with reference to the purpose the language is intended for at the time. If Marge and Peg are chatting in the kitchen, and Marge can't understand Peg because she is talking like Kofi, Peg is failing to communicate, and her English is therefore wrong.

Singular "they" has been around forever, and it is natural in my speech and, I suspect, the speech of most of us. Writing is not speaking, though. The words on the page stare back at us, and if they wink, we are distracted. Singular "they" winks as if to say, "Yes, I am the wrong number, but it's OK." Generic "he" also winks, saying, "I know I'm the wrong gender, but let's ignore that for now, OK?" (This is a basic defect in the English language, the lack of a gender-neutral pronoun for people.) They each have their problems, but I think you can say that singular "they" is better in informal speech, and generic "he" is still better in a journal article. We all want singular "they" to win full acceptance, but it is not there yet.

P.S. - I have a new respect for this spellchecker.

Anonymous · Answer

Enoon is correct on all points. English has been using "they" as a singular pronoun for a long time now. It's the default pronoun in spoken English. Only fussbudgets object to it in all circumstances, i.e. in "formal writing."

An outmoded bad answer to this problem is to use "his" instead of "their." One still runs into an occasional pedant who insists that when "his" is used that way, it's acting as a gender-neutral singular pronoun. Trouble is, on a gut level we all know that "he/him/his" is masculine. A gender-neutral pronoun that isn't gender-neutral is a worse problem than a singular pronoun that isn't singular.

A more recent bad answer is to use newly coined gender-neutral pronouns like "per" or "himmer" or (my favorite) "s/he/it." People keep making these up, but so far none of them have become popular.

A sometimes-okay answer is to use "his or her" instead of "their." While this is technically correct, it doesn't work all that well as language, especially in passages that make heavy use of pronouns.

(Note: "his or her" was probably the answer your book was looking for.)

A slicker technique is to make the reference plural: "All of the students in the accounting class have to type their own research papers this semester."

If making it plural doesn't work well for that particular sentence, the other slick technique is to avoid constructions that emphasize your use of "their" to as a singular pronoun. The sentence in your book uses "each," which is emphatically singular, and thus makes the use of "their" an explicit foreground issue.

In the end, you have to resign yourself to the fact that no matter how well you finesse it, there's always going to be a little lurking awkwardness in the use of "their" as a singular pronoun. You're like a remarried man who is marrying off his daughter by his first wife: both women have to be invited to the wedding, but it's best if you don't seat them too close together.

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