\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Marilyn, what are the positive, comparative and superlative degrees of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcgood\u00e2\u20ac\u2122?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
She answered, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Good, better, best.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Very good, Marilyn.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And Arthur, almost asleep in the corner there: What are the three degrees of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchigh\u00e2\u20ac\u2122?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Uh, the three degrees of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 are \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchi,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchello\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchow do you do?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
So went many lessons in the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc40s, taught by nuns like Sister Mary Grammatica, our homeroom teacher at Immaculate Conception School.<\/p>\n
It seemed that the grammar units were endless repetition, reading and reciting, going to the blackboard and diagramming sentences.<\/p>\n
As a pupil in elementary school, I learned always to ask the impertinent questions, usually about the English language, and often got a laugh. It became addictive, cracking up the class without always realizing their raucous laughter wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t meant as applause or approbation but as a way of asking, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How did Arthur ever come up with that answer?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Long before the de-sexing of the language, a movement that generated steam in the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc70s, in which the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153he\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ceased to apply to both male and females, I would wonder why it was necessary to refer to both genders, masculine and feminine, rather than letting the masculine form do the job.<\/p>\n
For example, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Let each one do his own thing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was a no-no and needed to be recast as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153his or her own thing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Later in life, after having entered the work world, I submitted an article to a journal published by the state Education Association.<\/p>\n
The editorial staff accepted it conditionally, provided I rewrite the entire article and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153use the proper pronoun forms.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It was difficult enough for me to try to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153over-qualify\u00e2\u20ac\u009d each sentence by adding \u00e2\u20ac\u0153or she\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to sentences that needed it. No, the difficulty came in forcing myself to render references to male and female as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153s\/he,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which was the language journal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s style at the time. That way, no one would get the impression the writer was a cigar-chewing sexist male.<\/p>\n
Only recently, the American Dialect Society voted to make \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a gender-neutral singular pronoun as the Word of the Year for 2015.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The result is that the group now regards \u00e2\u20ac\u0153they\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as a singular pronoun.<\/p>\n
But before getting into the nitty-gritty of the decision, let me explain that, according to the officers of the organization, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153they\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as a singular form had already appeared in works of Chaucer, Shakespeare and Jane Austen. And in 2015, the singular \u00e2\u20ac\u0153they\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153was embraced by the Washington Post style guide.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
I hate to break it to them, but the change simply will never fly. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has become so entrenched in the English language as a plural that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t specify gender that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s extremely unlikely it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll ever be in general usage. Language is what people say it is, and organizations voting on such changes can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always enforce the rules.<\/p>\n
In everyday usage, we wonder, does it sound mellifluous to say, for example, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I took my wife to lunch and they ordered a burger?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Only the neighborhood bigamist might utter such a statement. How can we ever get used to referring to one person as a they?<\/p>\n
On second thought, at least in Las Vegas, using \u00e2\u20ac\u0153they\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to refer to an individual is somewhat common. A student at Highlands\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 registration said to me, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They told me I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sign up for this class.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The immediate and inevitable question becomes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who is they?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
And we hear, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They were talking about you after school.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d What, pray tell, do you mean by \u00e2\u20ac\u0153they\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it usually just one person, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153they\u00e2\u20ac\u009d serves as a way of hiding the identity of the gossiper?<\/p>\n
The hoped-for effect of the ADA\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vote is to flex the English language so a plural could denote a singular, genderless, individual.<\/p>\n
An article by linguist Lorraine Berry says that English novelist Jane Austen used \u00e2\u20ac\u0153they\u00e2\u20ac\u009d where the reader expects \u00e2\u20ac\u0153he\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153she\u00e2\u20ac\u009d 75 times in one novel, Pride and Prejudice. Writer A.A. Milne once lamented that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If the English language had been properly organised . . . there would be a word which meant both \u00e2\u20ac\u02dche\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcshe.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Daily we come across \u00e2\u20ac\u201d although we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always notice them \u00e2\u20ac\u201d incorrect expressions. Sister Grammatica used to trick us into making an error in completing the following sentence: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I asked if anyone wanted ice cream, and I bought them some.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Well, how else can we render the sentence when \u00e2\u20ac\u0153someone\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is singular and the ice cream-cravers is\/are plural?<\/p>\n
I wish good luck to the members of the American Dialect Society in pushing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153they\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as a singular. If they succeed, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d better get used to speaking and hearing expressions like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I really like Katherine Zeta Jones because they is beautiful.<\/p>\n
No, the above sentence didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t create a second beautiful actress, married to Michael Douglas. All that happened is that we now refer to her as a they. A clone?<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
The NFL did something right in reinstating the four-week ban on New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, he of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153deflategate\u00e2\u20ac\u009d fame. Remember when he played a large part of a game tossing soft-as-muffins footballs to his teammates?<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
On the Walgreens block in town, a well-lit sign reads \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Urgent Care and Family Health.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that facility been closed for months?<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
Oops! Our bad. A recent letter to the editor of the Optic mentioned the Las Vegas Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Club\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s many monetary donations toward scholarships, Habitat for Humanity, to food kitchens and the public library.<\/p>\n
But our blasted spell-checker wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t familiar with the name of the philanthropist who helped build libraries around the country. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Carnegie\u00e2\u20ac\u009d came out as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Carnage,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and that, my friends, gives an entirely different slant to the club\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s generosity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Marilyn, what are the positive, comparative and superlative degrees of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcgood\u00e2\u20ac\u2122?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She answered, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Good, better, best.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Very good, Marilyn.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And Arthur, almost asleep in the corner there: What are the three degrees of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchigh\u00e2\u20ac\u2122?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Uh, the three degrees of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 are \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchi,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchello\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dchow do you do?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d So went many lessons in the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc40s, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1502,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501\/revisions\/1502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}