| 词组 | they, their, them |
| 释义 | they, their, them The question of the propriety of using they, their, them to refer to indefinite pronouns and singular nouns has two aspects that are distinct but often overlap. Both relate to perceived gaps in the language. The first, and most often discussed, is this: • One most annoying gap in English vocabulary is that created by the lack of a third person singular pronoun that does not state explicitly the sex of the person or persons referred to —Chambers 1985 The missing pronoun, in other words, would be a common-gender or common-sex (Otto Jespersen's term) third person singular pronoun. The second aspect of the question is glanced at in Chambers's use of "person or persons"—it is what Jespersen 1909-49 (vol. 2) refers to as a lack of common number or neutral number, a form of number that is neither definitely singular nor definitely plural. Jespersen says that "the lack of a common-number (and common-sex) pronoun leads to the frequent use of they and their in referring to an indefinite pronoun (or similar expression) in the singular." We shall examine these problematic aspects of the use of they, their, them separately. 1. Common-gender pronoun. Although the lack of a common-gender third person singular pronoun has received much attention in recent years from those concerned with women's issues, the problem, as felt by writers, is much older; the plural pronouns have been pressed into use to supply the missing form since Middle English: • And whoso fyndeth hym out of swich blame, They wol come up ...—Chaucer, "The Pardoner's Prologue," ca. 1395 (in Jespersen) The use of the plural pronouns to refer to indefinite pronouns—anyone, each, everyone, nobody, somebody, etc.—results from the concurrence of two forces: notional agreement (the indefinite pronouns are usually plural in implication) and the lack of sexual identification that indefinite pronouns share with they, their, them. You will find many examples of this reference at the entries in this book under agreement and at those for the individual indefinite pronouns. We add only a few examples here: • ... every one prepared themselves —George Pettie, A Petite Pallace of Pettie his Pleasure, 1576 (in McKnight 1928) • And every one to rest themselves betake —Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrèce, 1594 • ... if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses —Matthew 18:35 (AV), 1611 • Nobody here seems to look into an Author, ancient or modern, if they can avoid it —Lord Byron, letter, 12 Nov. 1805 • I would have everybody marry if they can do it properly —Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814 • Everyone in the building is in a constant process of evaluating and criticizing their institution —Roger Angell, Holiday, November 1953 • ... it is too hideous for anyone in their senses to buy —W. H. Auden, Encounter, February 1955 • ... the detachment and sympathy of someone approaching their own death —Alan Moorehead, The Blue Nile, 1962 • Each designs to get sole possession of the treasure, but they only succeed in killing one another —Sir Paul Harvey, The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 4th ed., 1967 The relative pronoun who is also unmarked as to sex, and the plural pronoun is used in reference to it: • Who makes you their confidant? —Jane Austen, Emma, 1815 (in Jespersen) • ... who ever thought of sparing their grandmother worry? —Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, 1920 • ... Al Haig declared, "I'm appalled by this proceeding. I'm wondering who thinks they are the Secretary of Defense around here." —David A. Stockman, Newsweek, 28 Apr. 1986 A second kind of reference connects they, their, them to singular nouns that can apply to either sex or to noun phrases that apply to both sexes. Again, we can see that the practice has a long history: • Every servant in their maysters lyverey —Lord Berners, translation of Froissart's Chronicles, 1523 (in McKnight) • ... every fool can do as they're bid —Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation, 1738 (in Jespersen) • Every person ... now recovered their liberty — Oliver Goldsmith, The History of England, 1771 (OED) • A person can't help their birth —W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, 1848 (OED) • ... unless a person takes a deal of exercise, they may soon eat more than does them good —Herbert Spencer, Autobiography, 1904 (in Jespersen) • It was a surprise to me to note how quickly the native ... learned how to work on the land in the more modern way and I watched them doing all kinds of work —R. Bates, Paper & Print, Summer 1951 • We can only know an actual person by observing their [sic] behaviour in a variety of different situations —George Orwell, as quoted by Edward Crank-shaw, Times Literary Supp., 26 Dec. 1980 • The consumer is very careful with what they're spending —Eugene Glazer, on Wall Street Week (television), 10 Dec. 1982 • I had to decide: Is this person being irrational or is he right? Of course, they were often right —Robert Burchfield, in U.S. News & World Report, 11 Aug. 1986 As most commentators note, the traditional pronoun for each of these cases is the masculine third person singular, he, his, him. This tradition goes back to the 18th-century grammarians, who boxed themselves into the position by first deciding that the indefinite pronouns must always be singular. They then had to decide between the masculine and feminine singular pronouns for use in reference to the indefinites, and they chose the masculine (they were, of course, all men). Naturally there is plenty of evidence for the masculine pronoun used in this way: • A person can thus learn to swim up to the limits imposed by his ... physique —Leacock 1943 • Nobody attains reality for my mother until he eats —Flannery O'Connor, letter, 28 June 1956 • Now, a writer is entitled to have Roget on his desk —Barzun 1985 • ... everyone allegedly being entitled to his ignorance —Simon 1980 • The client benefits by getting his well drilled at a guaranteed cost —Annual Report, Global Marine Inc., 1982 • In my book, everyone has his book, everyone blows his nose, and everybody goes his way —Kilpatrick 1984 But the insistence on the masculine singular has its limitations. Sometimes its results are downright silly: • ... everyone will be able to decide for himself whether or not to have an abortion —Albert Bleu-menthal, N.Y. State Assembly (cited in Longman 1984) Reader's Digest 1983 also points out that the masculine pronoun is awkward at best used in reference to antecedents of both sexes: • She and Louis had a game—who could find the ugliest photograph of himself —Joseph P. Lash, Eleanor and Franklin (in Reader's Digest) • ... the ideal that every boy and girl should be so equipped that he shall not be handicapped in his struggle for social progress —C. C. Fries, American English Grammar, 1940 (in Reader's Digest) It is an arguable point whether a phrase like "every boy and girl" is singular or plural. But note how much more natural and sensible the plural pronoun sounds: • ... the liberty of every father and mother to educate their children as they desire —Robert A. Taft, quoted in Time, 20 Sept. 1948 Some commentators recommend he or she, his or her, him or her to avoid the sex bias of the masculine and the presumed solecism of the plural. Bolinger 1980 points out that this solution, too, is old, going back to the 18th century, but that many commentators are also hostile to the forms as unwieldy (see he, he or she). Even the he or she formula can lead the unwary into trouble, as in this instance where it is used to refer to a plural pronoun: • Those who have been paid for the oil on his or her property —Lucia Mouat, Christian Science Monitor, 4 Aug. 1983 (cited by Allan Metcalf, American Speech, Fall 1984) One more point needs to be made. Simon 1980 writes: • ... I bristle at Miller and Swift's advocacy of they, their, etc., as singular pronouns because "reputable writers and speakers" have used them with indefinite antecedents But the lapses of great ones do not make a wrong right. The examples here of the "great ones" from Chaucer to the present are not lapses. They are uses following a normal pattern in English that was established four centuries before the 18th-century grammarians invented the solecism. The plural pronoun is one solution devised by native speakers of English to a grammatical problem inherent in that language—and it is by no means the worst solution. We must remember that the English pronoun system is not fixed. Several centuries ago the objective plural you drove the nominative and objective singulars thou and thee and the nominative plural ye out of general use. It appears to have happened for social reasons, not linguistic reasons (see you 3). They, their, them have been used continuously in singular reference for about six centuries, and have been disparaged in such use for about two centuries. Now the influence of social forces is making their use even more attractive. Thomas Pyles (Modern Language Notes, December 1955) sums up their position: "The use of they, their, and them as singular relative pronouns of indeterminate gender has long been perfectly well established, even in formal contexts." Evans 1957 agrees; Reader's Digest 1983 agrees; Chambers 1985 agrees. So do we. But remember that in this case (unlike the case of you) you have a choice: you can use the plural pronouns when they seem natural and you can use the singular pronouns when they seem natural. 2. Common-number pronoun. The examples involving nouns like person, human being, and fool cited in the preceding section might have equally well been set down here, because they illustrate the use of they, their, them to refer to singular nouns used in such a way that the singular stands for and includes any or all. Examples of this use are very old, and they include many cases where sex is perfectly obvious: • The righteous man ... that taketh not their life in vain —Pearl, ca. 1380 (spelling modernized) • There's not a man I meet but doth salute me As if I were their well-acquainted friend—Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, 1593 • 'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother, Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear The speech—Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1601 • No man goes to battle to be killed.—But they do get killed —George Bernard Shaw, Three Plays for Puritans, 1901 (in Jespersen) • The GI in Britain feels that the papers ... are ungrateful for their "sacrifices" and contemptuous of their society and country —Jean Rikhoff Hills, New Republic, 23 Aug. 1954 We even find they, their, them used in reference to inanimate nouns (although we have no literary evidence for this practice): • Do you wear a chain belt? If not, you may be out of the run of fashion in Ireland, for they are gaining a widespread popularity —Irish Digest, July 1953 • Your usual store should have their Autumn stocks in now —advt., Punch, 30 Sept. 1953 • Oh, we have an argument now and then, but they never carry over —Lessa Nanney, quoted in Blue-grass Unlimited, February 1981 In addition, we find they, their, them used in reference to singular nouns modified by a distributive (such as every) which imparts a notional plurality: • ... every man went to their lodging —Lord Berners, translation of Froissart's Chronicles, 1523 (in McKnight) • ... every president should assemble their companies —Archbishop Parker, letter, 8 May 1545 (OED) • ... every horse had been groomed with as much rigour as if they belonged to a private gentleman — Thomas De Quincey, The English Mail Coach, 1849 (in McKnight) They, their, them are used in both literature and general writing to refer to singular nouns, when those nouns have some notion of plurality about them. All the cases in this section, and a good many of those in the first section, illustrate this operation of notional agreement. Look again at the example from Shaw above. It would be a violation of English idiom to use a singular pronoun in the second sentence (But he does get killed) on the assumption that because no man is singular in form and governs a singular verb, it must take a singular pronoun in reference. Notional agreement is in control, and its dictates must be followed. 3. For other usage questions with they, see they 2, 3. |
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