Re:Merriam-Webster declares ‘they’ its 2019 word of the year
by hombre_fatal on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @09:50AM
(#21752953)
Your example doesn't sound as bullet-proof to me as you think it does. Especially if you're using Pat to suggest that we don't know their gender.
I just looked at my messenger chat history for "they" and "their" and found all sorts of examples of where we use "their" in your example, like committing to "their repository" which sounds more natural in some cases when you're just talking about pseudonyms or when something is said so in-passing that you don't even bother to pin down a gender. These come so naturally that you don't even realize it, just like you aren't examining my use of singular-they in this comment.
I'd suggest something else: We vastly underestimate how often we use the singular "they/their". I've seen HNers rant against the use of the singular they only to find usage examples in their own post history from just a day before.
I just looked at my messenger chat history for "they" and "their" and found all sorts of examples of where we use "their" in your example, like committing to "their repository" which sounds more natural in some cases when you're just talking about pseudonyms or when something is said so in-passing that you don't even bother to pin down a gender. These come so naturally that you don't even realize it, just like you aren't examining my use of singular-they in this comment.
I'd suggest something else: We vastly underestimate how often we use the singular "they/their". I've seen HNers rant against the use of the singular they only to find usage examples in their own post history from just a day before.