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Many traditional and current uses of distributive constructions in English grammar are broadly described by the term 'singular ''they''', covering uses of the pronoun ''they'' (and its inflected forms) when plurality is not required by the context.
Singular ''they'' remains morphologically and syntactically plural (it still takes plural forms of verbs) but can be semantically indeterminate in number. Some languages related to English, including German, use ''clitic'' particles to signify different types of distributions independently of singular or plural markings.

Contents

Grammatical examples

Grammatical analysis

Distributive constructions

Opposing positions

Usage

Of sex-neutral ''he''

Of singular ''they''

Of both

Analysis of usage

Modern reactions

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

Grammatical examples

★ Generic ''they'' (indeterminate number — distributed generalizations)
'There's not a man' I meet but doth salute me / As if I were 'their' well-acquainted friend — Shakespeare, ''The Comedy of Errors'', Act IV, Scene 3, 1594

★ Epicene ''they'' (indeterminate gender — unmarked, unknown or irrelevant)
'A person' cannot help 'their' birth.
— Thackeray, ''Vanity Fair'', 1848
Until the late twentieth century, various prescriptivists wrote that ''he'' was preferred (but not required) in such constructions.
''Strunk and White'' (first published 1918, revised 1959, reprinted 1999) has

A common inaccuracy is the use of the plural pronoun when the antecedent is a distributive expression such as each, each one, everybody, every one, many a man, which, though implying more than one person, requires the pronoun to be in the singular. Similar to this, but with even less justification, is the use of the plural pronoun with the antecedent anybody, any one, somebody, some one, the intention being either to avoid the awkward "he or she," or to avoid committing oneself to either. Some bashful speakers even say, "A friend of mine told me that they, etc."

Grammatical analysis

According to the traditional analysis,^[1] pronouns are typically used in English to refer back, or forward within a sentence, to a noun phrase (which may be a simple noun). (According to a newer analysis,^[2] to a determiner phrase, which may be a simple determiner.) A pronoun normally agrees with its antecedent in case, number, and gender.

★ ''Drama'' has worked 'its' magic over audiences for centuries.

★ ''Plays'' have worked 'their' magic over audiences for centuries.

★ When 'he' finished writing, ''John'' put the pen down on the table.

★ The teacher asked ''the girls'' whether 'they' had enjoyed writing the essays.

★ ''All good students'' do 'their' homework.

★ ''A good student'' is known for doing 'their' homework.
The last of these examples, in which ''their'' refers back to singular "student", is acceptable in speech, but some prescriptive grammars have objections to it, particularly in formal writing.^[3] Others do not; one says that "For those listening or reading, it has become unremarkable - an element of common usage."^[4]
''They'', although morphologically a plural pronoun, may be used in those circumstances when an indefinite number is signified by an indefinite singular antecedent; for example,

★ ''That person you mentioned, are they coming?'' (not
★ ''… is they coming?''
This is analogous to the pronoun ''you'', which originally was only plural, but eventually came to be used as a singular pronoun as well, replacing "thou" and "thee" by about 1700,^[5] while retaining the plural verb form. Some uses of ''singular they'' follow a grammatical rule, whereby singular indefinite antecedents (such as ''everyone, anyone, no one,'' and ''all'') are followed in a coordinate or independent clause containing the plural pronoun 'they'.^[6] The plural reflexive form ''themselves'' may be used as well, with some speakers using the singular form ''themself'', in particular with semantically singular ''they''.
Singular ''they'' responds as much to the semantic category of ''genericness'' as it does to either number or indeterminate gender. Thus, even if the gender is known, it might be used when a generic, as opposed to individuated, real referent is mentioned; for example: “A teenage boy rarely thinks about 'their' future.”^[7] ''A teenage boy rarely thinks about 'his' future'' is also "correct" here, in the sense that either sentence is likely to be produced by a native speaker of English. The prescriptions of grammatical "authorities" or "usage experts" are often ignored when such authorities try to impose restrictions on the language which are not reflected in actual usage by the speakers of the language. In formal writing, the former sentence would rarely appear.
Other modern uses are driven by the needs of gender-neutral English, specifically where the syntactically singular third-person personal pronouns of English are all either gender-specific (''he'' and ''she'' and their inflected forms) or inappropriate for reference to people (''it'' and its inflected forms). Singular ''they'' has also come to be used in cases where the sex of the referent is either unknown or irrelevant in the particular context, though some writers may seek to avoid such uses due to a perception of awkwardness of expression.

★ A child becomes an adult when they turn 18.

★ Each player on the boys' basketball team has had their physical.

★ Someone called for you, but they didn't leave a message.

Distributive constructions

Words that may be used in a variety of different types of distributive contexts include ''both, either, or, neither, nor, no, all, every, each, any, anyone, some, someone, no one'', and ''none''.

★ Tell them that none of them are required to bring 'their' books.

★ Tell them that they are not required to bring 'their' books.

★ None of the travellers had had 'their' breakfast.

★ None of the workers would have time for 'their' lunch.

★ Every one of them is worthy of praise, but none of them will claim any credit for what 'they' did.

★ If someone is flying a plane, then 'they' are a pilot.

★ No mother should be forced to testify against 'their' child.

Opposing positions

In the 20th century, a dispute in English grammar continued, with contention or confusion arising over the use of ''singular they''. At issue are questions arising from the feminist movement concerning the widespread use of generic ''he'' or universal ''he'' in the English language. The advice of style guides and editorial boards is divided on this matter.

★ Everyone has to consider 'their' future.
This is a contentious example, from the ''The Cambridge Guide to English Usage'' (2004); it is suggested that purists might say that it's ungrammatical to use ''their'' after ''everyone'', because ''one'' requires a singular pronoun.^[8] On the other hand, "generic/universal ''their'' provides a gender-free pronoun, avoiding the exclusive ''his'' and the clumsy ''his/her''."
Another example is provided -

★ Each member of the group must be prepared to bring in samples of 'their' work to discuss.
In fact, this usage occurs in Caxton (1489),^[9] as well as being noted by Baskerville and Sewell (1896).^[10]

Usage

Examples occur throughout Engish literature.

Of sex-neutral ''he''

These writers, from various periods of English letters, chose, for stylistic or other reasons, on these occasions, to employ the masculine form.

★ If any one did not know it, it was his own fault. —Cable.

★ Everybody had his own life to think of. —Defoe.

★ Suppose the life and fortune of every one of us would depend on his winning or losing a game of chess. —Thomas Huxley.

★ Every person who turns this page has his own little diary. —Thackeray.

Of singular ''they''

On these occasions, these writers, or the same writers, chose differently, stylistically.

★ Had the doctor been contented to take my dining tables, as anybody in their senses would have done. —Austen.

★ Every one must judge of their own feelings. —Byron.

★ If the part deserve any comment, every considering Christian will make it themselves as they go. —Defoe.

★ Every person's happiness depends in part upon the respect they meet in the world. —Paley.

★ The sun, which pleases everybody with it and with themselves. —Ruskin.

★ Urging every one within reach of your influence to be neat, and giving them means of being so.— Id.

★ Everybody will become of use in their own fittest way.— Id.

★ The richly canopied monument of one of the most earnest souls that ever gave itself to the arts. ^[11]

★ "Whoever lives there," thought Alice, "it'll never do to come upon them this size: why, I should frighten them out of their wits!" —Lewis Carroll, ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''

★ "It's long," said the Knight, "but very, very beautiful. Everybody that hears me sing it -- either it brings the tears into their eyes, or else --" —Lewis Carroll, ''Through the Looking Glass''

★ Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. —King James Version (Authorized Version) translation of the Bible, Philippians 2:3

★ God send every one their heart's desire! —Shakespeare, ''Much Ado About Nothing,'' Act III Scene 4

★ There's not a man I meet but doth salute me, As if I were their well-acquainted friend. —Shakespeare, ''Comedy of Errors,'' Act IV Scene 3

★ No one prevents you, do they? —Thackeray

★ I shouldn't like to punish anyone, even if they'd done me wrong. —George Eliot

★ ...everyone shall delight us, and we them. —Walt Whitman

★ He did not believe it rested anybody to lie with their head high... —Elizabeth Bowen

★ You do not have to understand someone in order to love them. —Lawrence Durrell

★ And how easy the way a man or woman would come in here, glance around, find smiles and pleasant looks waiting for them, then wave and sit down by themselves. —Doris Lessing

★ She kept her head and kicked her shoes off, as everybody ought to do who falls into deep water in their clothes. —C. S. Lewis, ''Voyage of the ''Dawn Treader''

★ Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. —Oscar Wilde

Of both

★ Nobody knows what it is to lose a friend, till they have lost him. —Fielding.

Analysis of usage

★ ''The typical student in the program takes about six years to complete their course work''
To establish patterns of usage in contemporary English, the ''American Heritage'' English language projects consulted a usage panel "of some 200 distinguished educators, writers, and public speakers."^[12] Most of the usage panelists rejected the use of ''they'' with singular antecedents. (See also Generic antecedents). Eighty-two percent found the sentence above unacceptable.^[13]
Michael Newman notes singular ''they'' has a centuries-long history of use, citing examples from the works of several notable authors, the earliest taken from manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales, circa 1400.^[14]

★ Eche of ''theym'' sholde ... make ''theymselfe'' redy. — William Caxton

★ Arise; ''one'' knocks. / ... / Hark, how ''they'' knock! — Shakespeare, ''Romeo and Juliet''

★ 'Tis meet that some more audience than ''a mother'', since nature makes ''them'' partial, should o'erhear the speech. — Shakespeare, ''Hamlet''
:''A person'' cannot help ''their'' birth. — Thackeray, ''Vanity Fair''
This passage, from the King James Bible, 1611 : Matthew 18:35 is an example of a plural ''they'' following a distributive pronoun:^[15]
:''So likewise shall my heauenly Father doe also vnto you, if yee from your hearts forgiue not euery one his brother their trespasses.''
The pronoun ''they'' is plural not singular in such usages. In the following case, these literal translations copy the Greek which has plural they (αυτων).
^[16]

Ούτως

και

ο

πατήρ

μου

ο

ουράνιος

ποιησει

υμιν,

εαν

μη

αφητε

εκαστος

τω

αδελφω

αυτου

απο

των

καρδιων

υμων

τα

παραπτωματα

αυτων.

Thus

too

the

father

my

the

heavenly

will do

to you,

if

not

you all forgive

each one

the

brother

his

from

the

hearts

your

the

trespasses

their.

Personal pronouns, which have distributive pronoun antecedents such as ''each,'' can take plural grammatical markers in the biblical languages of both Hebrew and Greek. The linguistic effect of distribution in such languages is to cause semantic, syntactic and logical ambivalence with regard to grammatical number.
The ambivalence of English in cases involving distributive constructions is also demonstrated by Nelson's famous, "England expects that every man will do his duty" – a distributive antecedent with singular pronoun. Hence the simultaneous acceptability of the following four analogous constructions to Caxton's "Eche of theym sholde … make theymselfe redy.":

★ Semantic agreement:

★
★ Each of us should make ourself ready.

★
★ Each of you should make yourself ready.

★ Syntactic agreement:

★
★ Each of us should make ourselves ready.

★
★ Each of you should make yourselves ready.
In the example from ''Hamlet'', Shakespeare uses singular ''they'' for a referent of indefinite number (it refers both to ''a mother'', namely Hamlet's mother, and to mothers in general) even though the gender cannot be in doubt. Similarly, the example from ''The Comedy of Errors'' also involves indefinite number.^[17] The cases from the Bible are examples of indefinite number, as ''each'' and ''every'' presume more than one brother.^[17] Thackeray provides a plausible example of a use of ''they'' to communicate indefiniteness with regard to gender, and the context makes it a very interesting choice of pronoun:
:"It can't be true what the girls at the Rectory said, that ''her'' mother was an opera-dancer--"
:"A ''person'' can't help ''their'' birth," Rosalind replied with great liberality. "And I agree with our brother, that as ''she'' is in the family, of course we are bound to notice ''her''." ^[19]
Singular ''they'' retains this implication of indefinite reference, and is most commonly used with indefinite referents such as ''someone, anyone, everyone,'' and ''no one'', where the reference is not to one particular person but to a large group taken one at a time, causing influence from this implied plural (as also sometimes with singular collective nouns, e.g. "''The XZ Mining Company say that they are unwilling to make an exception for one newspaper reporter.''"). This can be seen in:

★ I would have ''everybody'' marry if ''they'' can do it properly. — Austen, ''Mansfield Park'' (1814)

★ That's always your way, Maim – always sailing in to help ''somebody'' before ''they're'' hurt. — Mark Twain, ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (1884)

★ Caesar: "No, Cleopatra. ''No man'' goes to battle to be killed." / Cleopatra: "But ''they'' do get killed". — Shaw, ''Caesar and Cleopatra'' (1901)
Few people today would easily use ''he'' where Shaw used ''they'', but according to traditional grammar, such phrases as ''no man'' and ''everybody'' and the like are grammatically singular, and so do not take plural pronominal coreferents in these cases. Semantically, however, ''they'' refers to the ''men'' who are killed, just as Austen's singular ''everybody'' refers to the ''people'' who get married.

Modern reactions

The use of masculine generic nouns and pronouns in written and spoken language has decreased since the 1960s.^[20] In a corpus of spontaneous speech collected in Australia in the 1990s, singular ''they'' had become the most frequently used generic pronoun.^[21] The increased usage of singular ''they'' may be at least partly due to an increasing desire for gender-neutral language; while writers a hundred years ago might have had no qualm using ''he'' with a referent of indeterminate gender, writers today often feel uncomfortable with this. One solution in formal writing has often been to write ''he or she'', or something similar, but this is considered awkward when used excessively, overly politically correct,^[22] or both.
In certain contexts, singular ''they'' may sound less obtrusive and more natural than generic ''he'', or ''he or she''^[23] give the following example:
:''Nobody in their right mind would do a thing like that.''
The alternative formulation ("Nobody in ''his'' right mind […]") "now seems inappropriate to a large proportion of speakers, who systematically avoid the use of ''he'' in such contexts".
Some grammar and usage guides have accepted singular uses of ''they'', in cases limited to references to an indeterminate person.^[24] For example, ''A person might find themself in a fix'' is considered standard English, but not
★ ''Dr. Brown might find themself in a fix''. In the latter case, the most usual circumlocutions are: recasting the sentence in the plural (''Doctors might find themselves …''), second person (''If you're a doctor, you might find yourself …''), or sometimes reflexive (''One might find oneself …''). Singular ''they'' is occasionally used to refer to an indeterminate person whose gender is known, as in ''No mother should be forced to testify against their child'', c.f. (''Hamlet'').
Some grammarians (e.g., Fowler 1992, pp. 300–301) continue to view singular ''they'' as grammatically inconsistent, and recommend either recasting in the plural or avoiding the pronoun altogether. Others say that there is no sufficient reason not to extend singular ''they'' to include specific people of unknown gender, as well as to transgender, bigender, intersexual and androgyne people, and those who do not identify exclusively with either gender.^[25][26] Current debate relates to wider questions of political correctness and equal rights. The extent to which language influences thought may also be an important factor.
Australia is one of the few places in the English-speaking world to officially sanction its use in publishing and academic contexts.^[27] In particular, the Australian Government officially encourages its use in publications as a gender-neutral alternative to ''he or she''.
In ''The Language Instinct'' (1994)[4] Steven Pinker describes some usages of ''singular they'' as being explained in this way.
They are not really referential pronouns.
As an example,

★ Everyone returned to their seats.
Everyone returned to their seats means "For all X, X returned to X's seat." The "X" does not refer to any particular person or group of people.
The philosopher David Kellogg Lewis proposed a logical model for understanding the semantics in natural language of a more complex issue related to adverbial quantification and identified a phenomenon now called ''quantifier variability effect'' (QVE).^[28]
While there is considerable usage of ''they'' with gender-''indeterminate'' antecedents, usage of ''they'' with gender-''determinate'' antecedents is not overly common, and is still seen by most grammarians as problematic, as it can cause confusion. In the case of the sentence, "A man said they needed to use my phone", context is required to see if ''they'' refers to the man. Independent of context, it remains standard English for reference to a third party. One study indicated that when used with a gender-determinate antecedent, reading time of singular ''they'' increases significantly, indicating that use in this situation can be confusing.^[29] In these situations, most style guides recommend seeking an alternative to avoid confusion.

Notes

1. One that still has many adherents among linguists; for example Huddleston and Pullum, ''Student's Introduction.'' (2005)
2. For example, Andrew Radford, ''Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure of English'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004; ISBN 0-521-54274-X).
3. As mentioned by Huddleston and Pullum in ''Student's Introduction,'' p.105. (Huddleston and Pullum themselves have no objection.)
4. Pam Peters, ''The Cambridge Guide to English Usage'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004; ISBN 0-521-62181-X), p.538.
5. in English, and by the end of C17 ''thou/thee'' had been replaced by ''you'' for almost all second person uses, singular and plural ''Guide to Eng. Usage'' p539
6. Another way of referring to an antecedent which is a distributive pronoun or a noun modified by a distributive adjective, is to use the plural of the pronoun following. Baskervill&Sewell, ''An English Grammar'', 1896).
7. Michael Newman (1997) ''Epicene pronouns : the linguistics of a prescriptive problem'' ; Newman (1997) "What can pronouns tell us? A case study of English epicenes", ''Studies in language'' 22:22, 353-389.
8.
''The Cambridge Guide to English Usage'' p.538.
9. ''OED.''
10. W. M. Baskervill and J. W. Sewell, ''An English Grammar'', 1896.
11. Baskervill and Sewell, ''An English Grammar'' (1896).
12. Usage Panel
13. 'They' ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'', Fourth edition, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000).
14. M. Newman (1997) ''Epicene pronouns: the linguistics of a prescriptive problem''
15. DBAG, p. 298.
16. NA27
17. ''Their'' 3) ''OED'' 2nd ed.
18. ''Their'' 3) ''OED'' 2nd ed.
19. William Makepeace Thackeray, ''Vanity Fair'' c. 41.
20. (Pauwels 2003, p. 563)
21. Pauwels, p. 564)
22. Matossian, Lou Ann. ''Burglars, Babysitters, and Persons: A Sociolinguistic Study of Generic Pronoun Usage in Philadelphia and Minneapolis''. University of Pennsylvania, 1997 [2] accessed 10 Jun 2006.
23. Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005; ISBN 0-521-84837-7), pp. 103–105.
24. ''American Heritage Dictionary'', (1992); and ''Chicago Manual of Style'', (1993); cited in Laura Madson and Robert Hessling, "Readers' Perceptions of Four Alternatives to Masculine Generic Pronouns", ''Journal of Social Psychology'' 141.1 (February 2001): 156–158. See also Baranowski 2002.
25. Amy Warenda, "They", ''Writing across the Curriculum'' 4 (April 1993): 89–97 (URL accessed September 17, 2006)
26. . Juliane Schwarz of the University of Bristol, [3] (URL accessed June 10, 2005); see also Baranowski 2002.
27. Some examples: Federation Press Style Guide for use in preparation of book manuscripts; Australian Guide to Legal Citation
28. David Lewis, 'Adverbs of Quantification', ''Formal Semantics of Natural Language'', 1975.
29. J.Foertsch& M.A.Gernsbacher, In Search of Gender Neutrality: Is Singular They a Cognitively Efficient Substitute for Generic He? ''Psychological Science'' 8.2 (March 1997): 106–111. (URL accessed June 10,2006)

References

★ Baranowski, M. "Current usage of the epicene pronoun in written English." ''Journal of Sociolinguistics'' 6.3 (August 2002): 378–397.

★ An English Grammar

★ The Little, Brown Handbook, , Henry Ramsey, Fowler, HarperCollins, 1992, ISBN 0-673-52132-X

★ The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, , Rodney, Huddleston, Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-521-43146-8

★ A Student's Introduction to English Grammar, , Rodney, Huddleston, Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-521-84837-7

★ Progress in Language, with Special Reference to English, , Otto, Jespersen, Macmillan, 1894,

★ Pauwels, Anne (2003). "Linguistic sexism and feminist linguistic activism". Chapter 24 in ''The Handbook of Language and Gender'', edited by Janet Holmes and Miriam Meyerhoff. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-22502-1.

★ The Cambridge Guide to English Usage, , Pam, Peters, Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-521-62181-X

★ ''The Language Instinct''

★ Anyone who had a heart

★ Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure of English, , Andrew, Radford, Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-521-54274-X

★ The Oxford English Dictionary, , John, Simpson, Oxford University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-19-861186-2

Further reading

★ The Rise of Epicene They, Mark Balhorn, , , Journal of English Linguistics,

External links

★ The Singular "They"

★ Singular They and Jane Austen

★ Gender Neutral Pronoun FAQ on Singular They

★ Steven Pinker on the English singular "their" construction

★ The Mavens' Word of the Day — ''they'' (singular)

★ Regender can translate webpages to use the gender-neutral singular "they".

★ Grammar myths debunked Geoff Pullum summarized very briefly indeed, on the occasion of the publication of ''The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language''. Myth number three, that “‘They’ must never occur with a singular antecedent&rdquo, is disposed of in three short sentences.

★ Anyone who had a heart (would know their own language) by Geoff Pullum. Transcript of a radio talk. This does not dodge technical issues, but it is still very accessible.

★ Everyone at ''The Times'' agrees ... no they don't Geoff Pullum on prescriptivism from the (London) ''Times.''

★ Examples of singular "their" etc. from the ''OED'' and elsewhere