User talk:ZxqamF

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Thanks

Luckily, I read all this stuff before I posted. Hopefully, that means it doesn't suck. I'm tempted to think it doesn't. --ZxqamF 00:46, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

The Pianist template's grammar

Hi there. Could you please stop changing the grammar on the pianist template? Or at least learn a bit more about grammar before you do? They is the gender-neutral third-person plural pronoun, and perfectly acceptable grammatically. Just think "When somebody comes to see you, you should offer ____ coffee.", or "Somebody left me a message on my talk page; ____ signed it "Spang"".

If you take the time to read wikipedia's singular they page, you'll learn all you need to know. You may even find it quite interesting, and be suprised at how you didn't know all this already. If you can't be bothered reading that, just try and work out how bad this would sound if you followed your rules of grammar: "If anyone claims this seat is theirs, tell them they'll have to show their reservation." • Spang • ☃ • talk • 01:59, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

If you would have taken the time to actually read the article you pointed me to, you would have read "Some grammarians (Fowler 1992, pp. 300-301) continue to view singular they as grammatically inconsistent, and recommend either recasting in the plural or avoiding the pronoun altogether."

They is colloquially accepted as singular, and is "gaining" recognition formally. It is not recognized formally, and it is also stupid to think that it should. "They" is plural. "It" is singular, as is "he," "she," "you," and "I." Other plural pronouns are "we" and "you." I understand that "they are" in the particular template makes it "more readable," but to those people who are well-versed in English, it is almost an embarrassing error. ZxqamF 02:36, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes. But. The sentence right after the one you quoted reads: "Others say that there is no sufficient reason not to extend singular they to include specific people of unknown gender, as well as to transgender or intersexual people who do not identify exclusively with one gender or the other." So it's really just a matter of opinion.

And why is it stupid to think that it should be recognised formally? That is exactly how language works - something that isn't quite correct in a language sounds better than what the rules say should be used, and so more people use it, and as soon as more people accept it than don't, it becomes correct. You may want to consider that the word "you" was originally only used in the plural, as in "you people". It would be stupid to suggest that using it in the singular was incorrect now, wouldn't it? There are several other things that are changing in this language; it's only a matter of time before "ZxqamF and me had a revert war" becomes acceptable grammatically, and then just as correct as what should be used now.

The fact is that it is accepted informally, and this is not a formal template. "He or she" and "he/she" and their variants are awful kludges that unneccesarily increases the complexity of a sentence and make it sound terrible, and everyone knows we can't use "he" to refer to both any more. Anyone who considers the use of "they" as a singular as an embarrasing error really should worry about other things. Shakespeare used it, the Australian government officially encourages it as an alternative to "he or she", and I'll be using it in the template I made. Simple as that. • Spang • ☃ • talk • 03:19, 2 August 2006 (UTC)