their - singular

Question

Is it becoming more and more acceptable to use this word with a singular subject? Maybe it is now OK in all but formal writing?

I noticed on this website, they use it with singular subjects:

"English 1b3 commented on their own question."

RandomGuy · Accepted Answer

English 1b3Is it becoming more and more acceptable to use this word with a singular subject?

Yes, when the gender is unknown.

English 1b3Maybe it is now OK in all but formal writing?

I’d say so, yes.

English 1b3 · Answer

Don't you think it sounds very awkward in this instance - as awkward as saying 'his or her'?

"English 1b3 commented on their own question."

RandomGuy · Answer

I don’t like it either. I myself prefer generic masculine pronouns.

Grooble · Answer

Stephen Pinker covers this in pg. 378 of his excellent book "The Language Instinct" in the chapter The Language Mavens.
As he points out, using his or her or both, causes confusion: "Everyone returned to his seat makes it sound like Bruce Springsteen was discovered during intermission to be in the audience, and everyone rushed back and converged on his seat to await an autograph."

Here is his explanation:
"The logical point that you, Holden Caulfield, and everyone but the language mavens intuitively grasp is that everyone and they are not an "antecedent" and a "pronoun" referring to the same person in the world, which would force them to agree in number. They are a "quantifier" and a "bound variable," a different logical relationship. Everyone returned to their seats means "For all X, X returned to X's seat." The "X" does not refer to any particular person or group of people; it is simply a placeholder that keeps track of the roles that players play across different relationships. In this case, the X that comes back to a seat is the same X that owns the seat that X comes back to. The their there does not, in fact, have plural number, because it refers neither to one thing nor to many things; it does not refer at all. The same goes for the hypothetical caller: there may be one, there may be none, or the phone might ring off the hook with would-be suitors; all that matters is that every time there is a caller, if there is a caller, that caller, and not someone else, should be put off."

Their, them etc. are the correct choice in these situations.
btw, that chapter is a good read:
http://ling.kgw.tu-berlin.de/lexicography/data/MAVENS.html

their - singular

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