I read in today's UK Sunday Telegraph this account in that paper they published 20 years ago about "political 'correctness' :

" Political correctness, the insistence on ideologically filtered English that has taken hold of universities in the United States, has hit Britain. Lecturers at one of the country's newest universities want to make it a disciplinary offence to use 'unsound' words denoting gender, race or sexual orientation. Staff at Middlesex University (formerly Polytechnic) have brought out a working group paper calling for a ban on the use of nouns such as 'shepherdess' and 'mistress'. Lecturers who say 'charwoman' instead of 'charworker' could find themselves in trouble." - June 1992.

Did this stuff really take root in the USA, the Land of the Free, just as authoritarianism came to a failed end in communist Europe in 1989 ?

Do you suppose we say "they" when we mean "he" and so forth because of political correctness, and if we do, why do we do that?

For a good laugh I recommend googling 'political correctness' - all the entries are hilarious and they say or hint that it is arrant nonsense.

Thanks, Hairy Scot, for the warning about petty whatever you said. I am psychologically prepared for the shock of the blow if and when it falls.
In Scotland, as you know, there are so many variations on Standard English that there is a Scots dictionary - Scots is a different language, and great fun it is too. I have the dictionary and when in Scotland, as I am several times a year, I enjoy hearing the diverting vocabulary (which I look up afterwards, if necessary) and phraseology. In Invernessshire is the most wonderful quirk of all: when the speaker has just delivered a remark of self-considered great insight and wisdom, she (always a she) then concludes with "Aye, aha" (reflectively) while inhaling the words. Remarkable, and indeed unique. I can picture the scene in the dock now, in the courthouse in, say, Dalwhinnie: (exhale) "Not guilty, your majesty", (inhale), "aye, aha." Wonderful.

Something like this appeared in the newspaper in England this week: "Our son lost their keys". Intrigued, sort of, a little but not much, one reads on, to find out whose keys he lost and what they would do to him ... and yes: he had lost his own keys. Sloppy, no?

The notion that "they" is gender-free is bandied about a bit, but I can see no good reason for promoting gender-free. Take other languages: in French he and she are rendered as il and elle, 'they' is ils or elles depending on gender, and there is no gender-free way to do it. The French are not freaked by this at all, and furthermore use 'son' 'sa' and 'ses' as his or her and use 'leur' or 'leurs' for 'their' depending on the gender and number of the things owned and not the owner (so son chat is his cat or her cat: son is masculine because chat is masculine). As the Frenchman famously cried out in protest when the Assemblee Nationale discussed for some reason the promotion of gender-free, "Vive la difference"!

An example of the sloppy use of language: In the UK we have to hear answer-phone reports that "the caller withheld their number" leaving you wondering for a moment which people had their number withheld and what right the caller had to do this until you realise it refers to the singular caller's own number. Very irritating, really

Transitive and intransitive do not come into it. You can plead not guilty or guilty, (but not plead innocent) or you can plead for something. Neither is transitive. Guilty is an adjective, not even an adverb, so when you plead 'not guilty' that is an elliptical way of pleading (that you are) innocent, and a special construction in English. Guilty/not guilty are not the object of 'plead'.

Plead/pled, sneak/snuck, dive/dove are charming and diverting Americanisms. In an English courtroom one is described as having pleaded ...

Present tense: ‘we have a cricket tournament tomorrow.’ This has already been decided, and the speaker is reminding or informing his interlocutor of this plan, which IS already in place.
Future tense: ‘we will have a cricket tournament tomorrow.’ This is the statement that the speaker is deciding now to set up this plan, and the match WILL take place.

So strongly in agreement with you, Hairy Scot, that I didn't even notice your typo, if such it be. I too consider none as a singular notion, but my dictionary says it couldn't care less either way. But those trees have been saved, and that is the thing, and A Good Thing.

What? You mystify me. I am baffled by your latest contribution.

And it's Magna Carta (it is in Latin: it means 'great Charter'), not as you put it Magna Charter. You have your languages confused. Runnymede, King John, share power with the barons, 1215 and all that.

And it's "pleaded" not 'pled' when used in the legal sense of claiming to be not guilty (or indeed guilty). Check the Law Reports.

Time for you to take a break on that Tuscaloosa choo-choo, away from all the pressure.

"English does not have capital letters. The script it uses has. And the reason is tradition."

Interesting. A school inspector in 1947 held up a pen and asked the class what it was. They said it was a pen. He said no, it was a noun. My mother was the teacher, by the way, and relates the tale if sufficiently pressed to do so.

The word is a noun, the pen is a pen. That is why he was a school inspector, and not a teacher. Because he was an ass, in brief.

Now, as for your insight, JosephSungBin Im, I fear I am am rendered silent. I could, however, suggest you get in touch with JK Rowling who may have some ideas.

mykhailo
discusses gerunds:

gerund
a form that is derived from a verb but that functions as a noun, in English ending in -ing, e.g., asking in do you mind my asking you?

Now, those who are blessed with a grounding in Latin may be familiar with the example of a gerund of obligation: NUNC EST BIBENDUM. Bibendum is the gerund (noun) formed from the verb 'bibo'=drink. It means 'drinking' as the name of an activity, or of an action, perhaps.
Allied with the verb "est"=is, the idea of "must" creeps in as a quirk of Latin; and with nunc=now, we have "there must be drinking now" as our first draft of a translation. A coffee mug I was given by an appreciative Latin pupil says "nunc est bibendum" on one side, and "time for a drink" on the other, a fine, loose translation, conveying brilliantly the sense of the Latin.

In sum, then, a gerund is the noun version of a verb.