RE: [PATCH v2 4/4] CodingGuidelines: recommend singular they
From: Felipe Contreras <hidden>
Date: 2021-06-09 15:51:56
Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget wrote:
quoted hunk ↗ jump to hunk
From: Derrick Stolee <redacted>--- a/Documentation/CodingGuidelines +++ b/Documentation/CodingGuidelines@@ -648,3 +648,10 @@ Writing Documentation: inline substituted text+ instead of `monospaced literal text`, and with the former, the part that should not get substituted must be quoted/escaped. + + Refer to an anonymous user in a gender neutral way. Singular "they/them" + pronouns are preferred over "he/him" and "she/her". Do not use more + complicated constructs such as "he or she" or "s/he". When in doubt about + how to use this pronoun, then change your sentence to use singular "you" + (e.g. "When you want to do X, do Y") or plural "they" (e.g. "When users + want to do X, they can do Y.").
You are prescribing what language to use, this is prescriptivism. Earlier you said:
Linguists fit roughly into two camps: prescriptive and descriptive. The former specify rules for people to use, and the latter document language as it is actually used without forming a judgment. Some prescriptivists think it is acceptable, and some do not. But descriptivists will rightly note that it is and has been commonly used in English across countries, cultures, and contexts for an extended period of time and is therefore generally accepted by most English speakers as a normal part of the language.
Descriptivist linguists indeed have noted that the singular "they" has been used in the past, but not in the way you are proposing. Singular "they" has been used on semantically plural antecedents, not singular antecedents [1]. This detail easily escapes non-linguists. Moreover, descriptivists would also note that "she" and "he" have been commonly used as well, and there's nothing wrong with using them. A descriptivist linguist would not dare to prescribe how language should be used in a community, like you are doing. [1] https://ahdictionary.tumblr.com/post/147597257733/updated-usage-note-they -- Felipe Contreras