they的用法总结大全

"Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every one of us would depend on his winning or losing a game of chess."— Thomas Huxley, A Liberal Education (1868)

“假使真的存在这么一种情况，即我们每个人的生命和财产有一天要由自己在象棋比赛中的输赢决定，那么，你们不认为我们的首要任务是对象棋进行一定的学习吗?”--托马斯·亨利·赫胥黎，《通识教育》

"If any one did not know it, it was his own fault."— George Washington Cable, Old Creole Days (1879)

“如果有人不知道，那就是他自己的错。”--乔治·华盛顿·凯布尔，《克里奥尔人和过去的年代》

2. 19世纪的性别通用he的趋势

18世纪中叶后，倡导在非正式英语中使用he而非they的用法。

1895年的语法(Baskervill, W.M.与Sewell, J.W.的《An English Grammar for the Use of High School, Academy and College Class》)标记了they可以作为单数名词的用法，但也特别推荐使用代词he。

指代X性别："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)

“理想是每个男孩和女孩都应该有的，这使他在社会进步的斗争中不受阻碍...”--查尔斯·卡本特·弗里斯

指代两元性别的人："She and Louis had a game—who could find the ugliest photograph of himself."— Joseph P. Lash, Eleanor and Franklin (1971)

“她和路易士玩游游戏，各自找出自己最难看的照片。”--约瑟·P·拉什

3. 20世纪开始趋于适用性别中性语言

在20世纪的下半个世纪，女权主义者关注“性别歧视主义”的男性导向式语言。其中“he”作为性别通用代词就引发了许多争议。于是就出现了一些人在性别未知的情况下，偏向用they来表示个体，作为单数代词来使用。

例如Facebook早在2014年2月就有56个性别可供选择。除了最传统的“男”“女”二元选项外，还包括——

Gender Nonconforming：非常规性别，指拒绝接受传统性别二元区分的人，选择这一选项的人，强调的是自己的拒绝特征：我不属于传统二元，但我也不会去精确定位自己的位置。

Gender Questioning：性别存疑，指对自己的性别归属不完全确定、还没有找到最适合自己的性别认同标签的人。

Gender Variant：变体性别，和非常规性别类似。

Genderqueer：酷儿性别和非常规性别类似。

Non-binary：非二元，和非常规性别类似。

Agender：无性别，指没有发育性别、或者没有感觉到自己有任何强烈性别归属的人。

Gender Fluid：流性人，指在不同时间经历性别认知改变的人。

英国歌手山姆·史密斯(Sam Smith)近来在推特上表示，希望外界要以英文代词称呼自己时，请使用“They/Them”，并非传统的“He/Him”，因为他并非属于男或女的二元性别。

They的单数用法

Facebook made quite a splash lately. Not with a new service or the announcement of some smashing financial results. Instead, the company will allow users to choose something besides “Male” or “Female” for the gender on their profile. It's a change that transgender people and others who do not feel 100% male or female have greeted with joy and relief.

Facebook’s radical move—radical in the best sense—was accompanied by another, but altogether less radical, change. If someone doesn’t want to be known as either male or female, that same person will not want to see, on others’ Facebook pages, the message “Wish him a happy birthday!” or “Wish her a happy birthday!” How should they be referred to?

The answer is in that last sentence. The antecedent to the pronoun is someone, and the pronoun is, of course, they. Now, someone is grammatically singular (it takes a singular verb), and they is in most cases semantically plural (conjuring a group, not an individual). So some grammatical traditionalists think “singular they” is always wrong. But in fact, singular “they” is as traditional as it gets.

How so? English has a gap in its pronoun set. We often need to refer to an unknown person (“someone”, “anyone”, “a doctor” and the like). If we later use a pronoun for that same person, of unknown or unimportant sex, some traditionalists say that “he” is the best solution—someone is singular, so the pronoun must be too. But while he matches in number, it is a mismatch in gender: there is a strong chance the unknown referent is female. This “traditional” solution is flawed.

But traditionalists need not panic. Singular they has appeared in the finest English writing for centuries.

“And whoso fyndeth hym out of switch blame, they wol come up…” (Chaucer, "The Pardoner’s Prologue")

“And everyone to rest themselves betake” (Shakespeare, "The Rape of Lucrece")

“If ye from your hearts forgive not every one their trespasses” (King James Bible, Matthew 18:35)

“I would have everybody marry if they can do it properly” (Jane Austen, "Mansfield Park").

It is only in more recent centuries that some grammarians began to insist that the pronoun be singular, and that he should be thought of as gender-neutral. But recent psychological research has shown that the so-called "generic he" does call up the image of a man or boy. In the modern world, it makes little sense to expose young women and girls to repeated instances of A lawyer should know his client’s needs or A good doctor always listens to his patients. And that is even before we get to intersex, transsexual and other cases.

Most of the alternatives to singular they are worse. He or she is ugly, especially on repetition. Our "Style Guide" says that generic he is fine, perhaps to alternate with the occasional generic she. But this can seem cutesy, or at the very least distracting. And all suggestions for invented new gender-neutral pronouns have failed: pronouns (unlike nouns and verbs) are a “closed class” of words, almost never admitting new members. A children’s author has tried again recently in Sweden; it is too soon to tell if it will succeed, but the smart money would be against.

Faced with this conundrum, what to do? To recap, the options are

- be inaccurate and potentially sexist (generic he)

- be awkward and ugly (he or she)

- switch he and she at random

- invent something that will never work (new pronouns)

- do what Caxton, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Austen, Thackeray, Spenser and countless others have done, and what you probably do in informal speech yourself (singular they)

Facebook made a surprisingly easy choice.

There will always be those who think singular they is wrong. (Our style guide calls it "scrambled syntax".) Where avoiding distracting or annoying such people is paramount in your writing, the best solution is to reword, putting things in the plural to go round the choice. (Make The careful writer keeps his readers in mind into Careful writers keep their readers in mind.) But sometimes this solution will not work, or produces something less elegant.

Singular they is common in almost everyone’s relaxed speech. It may not make stylistic sense for a doctoral thesis. But it does for many people who reject traditional gender. Most transgender people prefer their new gender-based pronoun, so "he" and "she" are just fine. But for a minority, "they" might be best. Facebook has given them that option, without really doing damage to English tradition.

So, think about your audience, gauge the effect you’re going for, consider how formal the situation, and make the choice that works best. In a world full of imperfect people and imperfect solutions, just remember that, as Jonathan Swift wrote, “Every fool can do as they’re bid.”

they的用法总结大全相关文章：

they的用法总结大全

推荐文章

相关推荐文档

相关热搜