The grammar factor

IN SCHOOLS, it has taught for centuries that he/she, him/her and his/her are singular pronouns. Yet, over the years, there has always been a tendency for people to use constructs such as, ‘Everybody must submit their assignment tomorrow.’

This use of ‘their’ is regarded as incongruent since it does not agree with the singular antecedent, ‘everybody’, which is singular. Thus, the possessive pronoun, ‘their’, should have been ‘his’ or ‘her’. However, the use of ‘his’ or ‘her’ has been deprecated by some authorities for being sexist or exclusive, so ‘his or her’ should be used instead of ‘their’. The complaint, in this case, is that the use of ‘his or her’ makes the construct clumsy.

Some authorities are maintaining that the best way to avoid the incongruence, sexism, exclusivity and clumsiness is to pluralise the antecedent/subject of the sentence. Thus, ‘All students must submit their assignment tomorrow.’ It can also be easier if the subjects are all females or all males. Therefore, ‘Everybody must wear his belt tomorrow’ or ‘Everybody must wear her white dress on Sunday.’

Nonetheless, in current usage all over the world, people have been using ‘their’ in a singular context, even when the sex of the subject is clearly male or female, such as in the following cases: ‘The schoolgirl was requested to show their ID’, and ‘The man refused to give their name.’ ‘Their’ is used instead of ‘his’ or ‘her’.

The situation also involves the use of ‘they’ instead of ‘he’ or ‘she’, and ‘them’ instead of ‘him’, ‘his’ or her’. For instance, ‘The man was cited for parking their car in the wrong spot, but they refuse to accept the ticket was given to them.’ This sort of structure is found all over the Internet and in non-electronic publications, and seems to be universally accepted.

Their, them and they

It appears then that the days when ‘their’, ‘them’ and ‘they’ were regard only as plural possessive pronoun are gone. It is now also being used in a singular context. ‘He’, ‘she’, ‘him’, ‘her’ and ‘his’ are therefore on their way out of the English language lexicon. This evolution, however, is not only a language and linguistic phenomenon. It is also a big gender issue, which was explored in Part I, in many parts of the world.

The trend has wide-ranging implications for the teaching and learning of English pronouns the world over, where a great variety of English is written and spoken. Thus, The Gleaner reached out to some university educators in Jamaica by posing the following question to get their perspective: With the increasing use of plural pronouns in a singular context, what are the implications for the teaching of English in Jamaica, and should the Ministry of Education and Youth draft a policy against the use of such a context?

“Teachers need to sensitise students to this use of plural pronouns in the context of their use in North America and the West, and especially given the propensity of Caribbean nationals to emigrate to these regions. And regardless of this, this information relates to language usage and is thus relevant to students’ language education,” Dr Caroline Dyche, head of the Language Section in the Department of Language, Linguistic and Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the Mona campus of The University of the west Indies, said.

“The question of the context in which the pronouns are taught is the issue. In my view, their use can be situated in the context of foreign countries if the Ministry of Education wishes to distance Jamaica from this convention, one which reflects norms unacceptable to many Jamaicans.”

“The point is that our students will be exposed to the use of plural pronouns in a singular context whether we like or approve of it, and they need to be clear on why different usage exists, what is expected of them in their own student writing, and when, and why, they may be required or expected to vary their usage.”

Indeterminate pronoun

To the first part of the question, Dr Rohan A. Lewis, associate professor of language, culture and language at the University of Technology, Jamaica, said, “The singular ‘they’ and (its related forms, ‘them’, ‘their’, etc) is as an indeterminate pronoun that replaces personal nouns that do not implicitly refer to gender, such as ‘someone’ in the sentence, ‘Someone just came to the front desk. They left a message for the manager.’

“[The] use of the pronoun in this way has been attested for at least the last 600 years or longer, according to some sources. Grammatical purists prescribe against its use, especially in formal contexts. Nonetheless, because English is evolving away from gendered forms in language, it becomes a more natural replacement for the clumsy gendered form ‘he/she’ or ‘his or her’, etc.”

And should government intervene? “For a question like this, government intervention is not usually needed or even recommended. There are several reasons for this. Language use generally trumps regulations by government agencies on specific items such as this. Second, it is best to teach students a language as it is used and the context of that use. A more important related reason, though, is that English is one of those languages that resist regulation. The language has no equivalent to the Académie française for French, or the Real Academia for Spanish,” Dr Lewis explained.

Dr Dyche believes that, “In today’s interconnected world … it’s really unrealistic to try to handle this matter in a censorious way that ignores the highly cross-cultural reality of our students.”

It is about awareness and adaptability, and the descriptive, rather than the prescriptive, approach to the teaching and learning of English.