I’ve lengthy thought that utilizing “they” as a gender-neutral pronoun — as in “My cousin had lengthy hair, they usually bought it minimize at the moment” — is simply nice. It’s been used that manner for not less than 600 years, whether or not pedants prefer it or not. “An individual can’t assist their start” (Thackeray in “Self-importance Truthful”). “And whoever finds himself out of such blame / They may come up and supply in God’s identify” (Chaucer in “The Canterbury Tales”). To many English audio system, it has lengthy felt fairly pure.
As for the usage of “they” to indicate nonbinary identification, it serves an actual linguistic want, however many English audio system discover it complicated. Think about this citation from an article from The New Yorker on the literary theorist Judith Butler: “Greater than 900 individuals crammed an auditorium in Ankara to listen to them converse. ‘Not simply lecturers however L.G.B.T.Q. activists, antiwar activists, intercourse employees.’ Butler informed me that they’d little notion of what was occurring at first.” Grammatically, it’s straightforward to learn the “they” as referring to the crowds, not Butler. Or: “Butler was met by protesters holding placards depicting them with satan horns. They burned a puppet bearing a witch’s hat.” Did protesters burn the puppet? Or did Butler?
I’ve been considering for some time about easy methods to make this new utilization much less ambiguous, and I beforehand offered an thought or two. However for written language, not less than, right here’s a greater one: When “they” refers to a nonbinary individual, why not capitalize it?
“Butler informed me that They’d little notion of what was occurring at first.” There, mounted it.
Change will be arduous, however a capitalized “they” may not be such a stretch. In reality, the behavior of capitalizing “I” was additionally a sensible adaptation to keep away from confusion, again within the days when m was written “ııı” and n was written “ıı.” A stray “i” floating round earlier than or after a kind of might make the entire thing arduous to learn, so uppercase it went. And now it appears completely logical.
I’ve a private instance. I discovered it arduous to get a lot inquisitive about capitalizing “Black,” as I as soon as mentioned right here. I’m a creature of behavior, and it appeared to me that there have been larger fish to fry. However as a result of an august newspaper for which I write capitalizes it and expects me to take action within the copy I file, I’ve observed myself capitalizing it in writing I do elsewhere, too. It’s turning into a behavior. It took lower than a yr for me to develop it.
I’m not suggesting that the merely singular “they” be capitalized. “An individual can’t assist Their start” is pointless, as a result of there isn’t any ambiguity concerned. Nonetheless, with the brand new utilization, the place “they” refers to a particular individual, capitalization would create readability in a single fast stroke.
Language at all times modifications, however the brand new “they” utilization has come alongside particularly abruptly. As a result of it’s wanted, why not make it simpler to know and use? In addition to, a distinction between “they” and “They” is form of cool. English has too few pronouns general. Writing “They” would allow us to sneak in what would look on the web page like a brand new pronoun of a form.
By the way, the Trump administration’s listing of phrases that are actually unwelcome in authorities and government-funded paperwork — corresponding to “trans,” “privilege” and “feminine” (?!) — additionally consists of the phrase “pronoun.” I suppose that makes my subsequent ebook a liber non grata in these quarters, however I stay proud nonetheless of “Pronoun Hassle: The Story of Us in Seven Little Phrases,” which, I’d be remiss to not point out right here, can be revealed subsequent week. “Pronoun Hassle” isn’t just concerning the “they” problem. It’s additionally about all of our pronouns and the way they’ve developed since deep antiquity — I imply, actually deep — and what all of it teaches us about how all languages change over time. I’m additionally going to genially offend many readers by saying that “Him and me tried to carry it up” isn’t a “dangerous” sentence. In French, it’d be nice.
