Re: USAGE: English Usage: "THEY"

On Tue, Oct 19, 2004 at 03:46:42PM -0700, Elliott Lash wrote:
>   "I was reading Frankenstein the other day, and they
> talk a lot about electricity in the introduction to
> this version"
That sounds odd to me.  It would be normal if talking about, say, a textbook,
but not a novel with a single author.

>   This got me to thinking about the word "they", and
> how I use it. I often say things like:
>
>  "My friend and I were going down to the store. They
> like to get something to eat after class"
That also sounds weird to me.  I would never use "they" in its epicene
sense to refer to a specific individual whose gender I know.  The
unsuitability of "they" in such circumstances is, in fact, one of the
primary arguments for introducing a new specifically epicene pronoun
into English.  But perhaps such unsuitability is merely generational
and "they" is in the process of becoming a fully-functional epicene . .
.

-Marcos