{"id":1042,"date":"2016-01-12T10:05:22","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T10:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/superior-english.com\/?p=1042"},"modified":"2016-01-13T21:25:33","modified_gmt":"2016-01-13T21:25:33","slug":"word-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/superior-english.com\/en\/2016\/01\/12\/word-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Singular „they“ Word of the Year 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

The over 200 linguists of the American Dialect Society\u00a0have\u00a0named singular „they“\u00a0Word of the\u00a0Year 2015. After all, everyone uses singular they, whether they<\/em>\u00a0realize it or not.<\/p>\n

The use of singular they\u00a0has\u00a0<\/em>long been frowned upon by grammarians\u00a0despite its widespread use, not only in American speech but throughout\u00a0the English-speaking world. In fact,\u00a0singular they <\/em>is well documented in literature–from\u00a0Shakespeare to Jane Austen–and has been around for a very long time.<\/p>\n

If you’re not sure what is meant by singular they, have a look at this example sentence:\u00a0„If anyone calls, tell them I’m not here.“\u00a0<\/em>In the past, at least when it comes to the written word, prescriptivists and style guides would have insisted\u00a0writers use either „he“ or „she“, e.g.,\u00a0„If anyone calls, tell him I’m not here.“ <\/em>Now how weird does that sound? \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Check out this interesting write-up in the Washington Post to find out more about\u00a0why the ADS has taken\u00a0the\u00a0unanimous decision\u00a0to embrace the use of singular they:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/wonk\/wp\/2016\/01\/08\/donald-trump-may-win-this-years-word-of-the-year\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The over 200 linguists of the American Dialect Society\u00a0have\u00a0named singular „they“\u00a0Word of the\u00a0Year 2015. After all, everyone uses singular they, whether they\u00a0realize it or not. The use of singular they\u00a0has\u00a0long been frowned upon by grammarians\u00a0despite its widespread use, not only in American speech but throughout\u00a0the English-speaking world. In fact,\u00a0singular they is well documented in literature–from\u00a0Shakespeare … Continue reading Singular „they“ Word of the Year 2015<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[273],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","no-featured-image"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t