Re: [PATCH 1/4] Documentation: use singular they when appropriate

Phillip Susi wrote:

Felipe Contreras [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget wrote:

quoted

From: Derrick Stolee <redacted>

--- a/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
+++ b/Documentation/SubmittingPatches

@@ -373,7 +373,7 @@ If you like, you can put extra tags at the end:
 . `Acked-by:` says that the person who is more familiar with the area
   the patch attempts to modify liked the patch.
 . `Reviewed-by:`, unlike the other tags, can only be offered by the
-  reviewer and means that she is completely satisfied that the patch
+  reviewer and means that they are completely satisfied that the patch

Say wait a minute.  If that is a "singular they", then why was the "is"
changed to "are"?

Great point. I doubt any linguist would be happy with:

  can only be offered by the reviewer and means that they is completely
  satisfied...

Unless we are in the context of African-American Vernacular English.

I think that belies the fact that there is no such thing as a
"singular they".

There is such a thing as singular they, but it's not what the proponents
of this patch think [1]:

This is a good use of singular they:

  Everyone returned to their seats

This isn't:

  We thank the anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments

Cheers.

[1] https://ahdictionary.tumblr.com/post/147597257733/updated-usage-note-they

-- 
Felipe Contreras