Comment on [deleted]
knightly@pawb.social 8 months ago
Sadly, many educational institutions still teach a prescriptive form of English that fails to acknowledge this, but singular “They” is centuries older than using “You” instead of “Thou”. It was already in common use way back in Shakespear’s time. If thou thinkst this confusing, change thyself before demanding others change for thine own comfort.
Also, some people are plural, so the ambiguity of “they” is inclusive to them.
Also-also, the only other pronouns in common use that aren’t explicitly gendered are “it/its”, which works just fine for me but some people find dehumanizing. Nonbinary and agender folks often prefer “they/them” over "it/itsx or neopronouns.
Also-also-also, “picking new words to use” is extremely non-trivial for pronouns because it requires the entire English-speaking population to relearn fundamental communication habits. It’s much easier to simply accept the fact that singular they is extremely common.
otp@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Like the former Queen of England’s royal we?
knightly@pawb.social 8 months ago
Yeah!
The Royal “We”, aka the “Majestic Plural”, is the use of a plural pronoun to refer to a single person holding a high office.
For plural folks, using a plural pronoun to reference the multiple persons existing within a single body is also appropriate (though I don’t know if that usage has a fancy name yet~). And when referencing these persons individually, we just use their own pronouns the same as with non-plural folks. 🤓
otp@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
The first paragraph sounds like the royal we, and the second paragraph sounds like dissociative personality disorder, lol
knightly@pawb.social 8 months ago
They’re calling that one “Dissociative Identity Disorder” these days, and it’s clinically distinct from plurality.
DID is usually a trauma response, one marked by memory gaps as the separate personalities are partitioned off from one another. One can’t switch identities consciously, but rather does so involuntarily as a stress response.
Plurality is usually benign and doesn’t involve notable memory gaps as the different alters can be co-conscious and are not strongly partitioned apart. Plural individuals can often switch which personality is “fronting” consciously. Rather than a disorder, it’s an uncommon form of neurodiversity.