Date:  Sun, 6 Nov 1994 00:53:52 EST

From:  Larry Horn <LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU>

Subject: Re: Folkspeech as wellspring



While we're on the subject of sex-indefinite singular 'they', a valuable brief

history and analysis is given by Ann Bodine in a Language in Society paper

published in 1975. The use of 'they'/'them'/'themself' in a variety of

contexts (albeit to different extents in different syntactic environments) is

indeed rather ancient, pre-dating the current 'PC' debates by several

centuries, in both formal and informal registers.



--Larry