Himself, herself..them...?

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 9:23 pm

the original example poses a problem. It's pretty pointless to suggest recasting after you've started the sentence off

Good point. I tried saying the original example to myself and it came out "A person who thinks too much of, er, um, I mean, people who think too much of themselves..." I couldn't bring myself to say "himself" but nothing else sounded right either

Not that it answers Metamorfose's question.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 9:55 am

Earlier I said I thought 'themself' was "ungrammatical"...I was thinking more along the lines of *They all killed themself than ?A person/Anyone who thinks too much of themself...but I still prefer 'themselves' (due no doubt to the * example I just mentioned).

Dr Jones, you say "I don't find anything strange about 'themself' and suspect it will rapidly come into fashion" and then "themself is between 300 and 900 times less common than 'themselves' depending on whether you take Google or the BNC as your source". How long do you reckon this "rapid" change might take, when 'themself' doesn't appear to be in the standard set of reflexive pronouns?

Ajxl · Post by **Ajxl** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 3:34 pm

kewl topic guys

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 1:54 pm

ABC's Lingua Franca programme recently covered the use of they as a gender-neutral pronoun. It seems it's been used since at least the 19th century.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/s ... 723189.htm#

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 2:03 pm

It's been in use since the King James Bible. Read the passage about adultery

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 12:31 pm

Which passage on adultery are you referring to, Stephen? Without seeing the relevant verse I can't be sure that they is referring to one person or two (or more...) since it takes two to tango.

Stephen Jones · Post by **Stephen Jones** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 5:40 pm

Sorry not adultery, apostasy.

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/language ... 03485.html