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David.Bantz
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March 29, 2006
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Your Pain Is Our Pleasure
24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More
Your Pain Is Our Pleasure
24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More
Username
David.Bantz
Member Since
March 29, 2006
Total number of comments
1
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0
Bio
The “he or she” problem
Several years ago I systematically searched the quotations within the OED for instances of singular subject with "their" in the subject. I hope no one will be shocked that there were many many examples going back hundreds of years. Such a construction seems superior in some ways to the suggested alternatives:
"Players must move their piece..." seems to imply that some number of players have joint possession of a piece.
"Players must move their pieces..." might be seen as implying players jointly possessing multiple pieces.
"Each player most move their piece..." violates a formal rule but conforms to historical (if not very recent) usage and indicates each player has possesion of a piece.
I see I am agreeing with and (I hope) reinforcing the point of "Genesius."