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Showing posts with label GRAMMAR PILLS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GRAMMAR PILLS. Show all posts

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SINGULAR 'THEY' (From Oxford English Dictionary Blog)

👉 An excerpt from "A brief history of singular they", by Dennis Baron

Singular ‘they’ has become the pronoun of choice to replace ‘he and she’ in cases where the gender of the antecedent – the word the pronoun refers to – is unknown, irrelevant, or nonbinary, or where gender needs to be concealed. It’s the word we use for sentences like ‘Everyone loves his mother’.
Since forms may exist in speech long before they’re written down, it’s likely that singular 'they' was common even before the late fourteenth century. That makes an old form even older.

In the eighteenth century, grammarians began warning that singular 'they' was an error because a plural pronoun can’t take a singular antecedent. They clearly forgot that singular 'you' was a plural pronoun that had become singular as well. You functioned as a polite singular for centuries, but in the seventeenth century singular 'you' replaced 'thou', 'thee', and 'thy', except for some dialect use. That change met with some resistance. […]

Singular 'you' has become normal and unremarkable. […] And singular 'they' is well on its way to being normal and unremarkable as well. Toward the end of the twentieth century, language authorities began to approve the form. The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) not only accepts singular they, they also use the form in their definitions. And the New Oxford American Dictionary (Third Edition, 2010), calls singular 'they' ‘generally accepted’ with indefinites, and ‘now common but less widely accepted’ with definite nouns, especially in formal contexts.

Not everyone is down with singular 'they'. The well-respected Chicago Manual of Style still rejects singular 'they' for formal writing, and just the other day a teacher told me that he still corrects students who use ‘everyone … their’ in their papers, though he probably uses singular 'they' when his students aren’t looking. […]

💡 GO TO FULL ARTICLE

👉 Dennis Baron – Professor of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Read Dennis’s blog, The Web of Language, and follow him on Twitter as @DrGrammar.
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WEEKLY PICKS - 15

This is a weekly selection of reading articles, free online exercises, YouTube videos, games, quizzes and resources for you to further improve your English language skills while having fun – ENJOY!

📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

 From BBC SPORTS: Everyday exercise: How to work out at home (without equipment) Cardio (or cardiovascular) exercise is movement that gets your heart rate up and increase blood circulation throughout the body.
Whether you are looking to improve the condition of your heart (remember it's a muscle), lose weight, clear your mind or just generally improve your health, cardio exercise will help you.
The NHS has a 10-minute home cardio workout to get you started until you are ready to move for longer.
Walking is a great way to get more active and you can literally do it anywhere, and in any way that suits you. If you are ready to take on the next step, the Couch to 5K programme can take you from walking to running or jogging for 30 minutes confidently within nine weeks. (Continue reading)

From OXFORD Living Dictionaries: Top tips for better business writing. This guide will show you the things to look out for when writing for business, to make sure you're always clear, and that you always leave a good impression.
All good writing communicates with readers in a personal way. Good business writing, whether it is a report written for an employer or an email to a client, does that quickly and effectively. You do not need to use overly formal language; it is better to use a neutral style that is akin to conversation, but rather more organized.
Above all, present your information logically and helpfully, so that readers are in no doubt what your message is—and what, if anything, you want them to do in response. (Continue reading)

🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

 LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:
BBC English Class: How to learn and use phrasal verbs (2:32 minutes)
5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:
How to Argue – Philosophical Reasoning: Crash Course Philosophy #2 (9:42 minutes)

A LITTLE LONGER BUT WORTH IT!
What to Eat in Normandy, France - Visit Normandy (10:30 minutes)

Everyday or every day? (5:18 minutes)

💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:


MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!
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WEEKLY PICKS - 14

This is a weekly selection of recommended free online exercises, games, videos and resources so that you can improve your English language skills while having fun – ENJOY!

📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

From BBC FUTURE: The obsolete tech that children can't recognise, Helene Schumacher. Show your age by seeing if you recognise this list of tech objects from the recent past. A recent study has revealed which kinds of tech have stood the test of time – in terms of recognition, if not use. Would your children recognise these? (And would you?). (Continue reading)

From Mind Tools Blog: Does Your Profession Reflect Who You Really Are?, by Bruce Murray. Toni Morrison is a favorite author of mine, who recently brought to my mind one of life’s fundamental questions: “Does the work that I do define me? Or is the ‘real me’ the person I am outside of my work?” – What Defines You? (Continue reading)

From BBC CAPITAL: This single phrase makes Japan go round, by Yukari Mitsuhashi. “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu” is a term that is heard all the time but hard to define. It’s the Swiss Army knife of the Japanese language, and it goes a long way in any type of situation.
... “It’s a phrase to convey respect and appreciation. It’s usually accompanied by a bow that can range from a little tilt of the head to a full sweeping bow.” Goto adds: “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu is critical to ensure that everyone is appreciated for their different skills. I would say it to the hair stylist that I am planning to see tomorrow. But I would say it much more seriously with desperation if I needed to go see a doctor tomorrow for a medical emergency. Both the stylist and the doctor play a role in society that makes the world go round and it’s really a sort of verbal lubricant.”
Although commonly translated in Japanese class textbooks or travel guides as ‘nice to meet you’ or ‘please take care of me’, these fall far short of truly encompassing its diverse uses and how it embodies Japanese culture and its people. (Continue reading)

🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:
Stop Saying...: Avoiding direct language to sound more polite (3:02 minutes)

5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:
Learn about cultural differences in 6 minutes (6:12 minutes)
Archetypes and Male Divinities: Crash Course World Mythology #15 (11:45 minutes)


💬 VOCABULARY PICKS:

📌 This week's special ⇒ WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

 Between or Among? (From Learn English with Emma)
After watching the video, take the quiz here ⇒ http://www.engvid.com/between-or-among/

➕ A few more vocab picks:
💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:



MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!
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WEEKLY PICKS - 13

This post offers you a selection of recommended free online exercises, games, videos and resources so that you can improve your English language skills while having fun – ENJOY!

📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

 From BBC FUTURE: The new phones that are stuck in the past, by Peter Rubinstein. These sleek, downgraded cell phones are meant to promote mental wellbeing – by turning the clock back to the pre-smartphone era.
… After several years of tinkering, Neby invented the solution to his mobile obsession: another cell phone. But unlike his Blackberry, this one was specifically designed to promote healthy behaviour by being used as little as possible. With this idea in mind, Neby’s company Punkt was born.
It now stands as one of several start-ups aimed at tempering advanced technologies with a return to good old-fashioned humanity, providing an escape route from the anxiety and addiction of smartphones. Because these secondary devices do little more than make calls, owners say they have rediscovered the freedom they had before their iPhones were surgically attached to their palms. (Continue reading)

 From BBC CAPITAL: Are you guilty of 'cyberloafing'?, by Emily Lowe-Calverley and Rachel Grieve. A spot of online shopping, checking out your holiday snaps on Facebook: if you break up your work day with non-work online activities you may be guilty of 'cyberloafing'.
Cyberloafing – engaging in non-work online activities while “on the clock” – is a modern form of counterproductive workplace behaviour ...
Cyberloafing can lack malicious intent, but not always ... So, who is likely to cyberloaf, and why? (Continue reading)

🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS:
BBC Masterclass: Advanced Learner Mistakes - go, come, bring and take (3:26 minutes)

News Review: Money spent on time makes you happy (8:14 minutes)

A LITTLE LONGER BUT WORTH IT!
Meet Your Master: Getting to Know Your Brain – Crash Course Psychology #4 (12:33 minutes)

MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!
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GRAMMAR PILLS: HE/SHE or THEY? - GENDER INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE


Should we say "help a student with his/her homework" or "help a student with their homework"?

💡 Quick answer:

→ In informal contexts, use the 3rd person plural: 'they', 'them', 'theirs', 'their' or 'themselves' ⇒ help a student with their homework.

→ In formal contexts, use the 3rd person singular: 'he/she', 'him/her', 'his/hers', 'his/her' or 'himself/herself' ⇒ help a student with his or her homework.

 → If possible, use a plural noun + the 3rd person plural ⇒ help students with their homework.

💡 EXTENDED ANSWER:

A pronoun replaces a noun or noun phrase. The noun or noun phrase replaced is called the 'antecedent' of the pronoun, and the pronoun must agree in person and number with its antecedent.
➧El pronombre reemplaza al nombre. El nombre reemplazado es el 'antecedente' del pronombre, y ambos deben concordar en persona y número.

❓ Entonces, ¿cuál es el problema?

 El problema es que, en inglés, la 3ra persona singular tiene 'he' (masculino), 'she' (femenino) e 'it' (animales + nombres inanimados).

 Por lo tanto, cuando debemos reemplazar o referirnos a un nombre animado (persona) en singular que no distingue género (como 'a student', 'a child', 'somebody', 'everybody', 'a person', etc.), ¿deberíamos usar 'he' o 'she' o ambos?

HE/SHE: La primera respuesta puede ser que usemos ambos:
→ Everybody must do his or her best.
→ Someone has texted me; I don't know who he or she is.
Sin embargo, esto puede resultar pesado y confuso si aparece repetidamente en el texto.

THEY: Como solución, entonces, se ha comenzado a utilizar la 3ra persona plural (they) para incluir el femenino y el masculino:
→ Everybody must do their best.
    (Singular)              (plural)
→ Someone has texted me; I don't know who they are.
    (Singular)                                                (plural)
Esta opción no tiene aceptación unánime porque no hay concordancia en número entre el pronombre y su antecedente, y en contextos muy formales o académicos puede desaconsejarse. (See: Gender Neutral Language)

Sobre esta controversia, Oxford Dictionary dice:

"Some people object to the use of plural pronouns in this type of situation on the grounds that it’s ungrammatical. In fact, the use of plural pronouns to refer back to a singular subject isn’t new: it represents a revival of a practice dating from the 16th century. It’s increasingly common in current English and is now widely accepted both in speech and in writing."

Finalmente, se recomienda usar el nombre en plural para que concuerde en número con 'they', pero esto no siempre es posible.
Ejemplo:
→ En lugar de: "A student should finish their homework before playing video games", podemos decir: "Students should finish their homework before playing video games"
→ Pero ¿cómo lo aplicaríamos en: "Someone has texted me; I don't know who they are"?

Sobre este tema Cambridge English Grammar Today dice:

Traditionally, he and him were used to refer to both genders in formal writing:

If anyone has any evidence to oppose this view, let him inform the police immediately.

Nowadays, we often see gender neutral forms (e.g. he or she, he/she, s/he, (s)he, they and him or her, him/her, them) when we do not know if the person referred to is male or female:

The bank manager could help with your problem. He or she will probably be able to give you a loan. (or … he/she will probably be able to … or … they will probably be able to …)

Go to a hairdresser. Ask him or her to come up with a style that suits you, your hair, your lifestyle. (or … ask him/her to come up with a style … or … ask them to come up with a style …)

When you get into the building, go to the person on the desk in the reception area. They can tell you where to go. (or He or she can tell you where to go.)

🔗See also: One and Sexist language

Gender-inclusive Language (From Speak English with Emma)
💡You may also want to read: A brief history of singular ‘they’ (from Oxford English Dictionaries Blog)

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