on Mon, Jul 15, 2002, Jeffrey Chimene (jec@systasis.net) wrote: > David Wright <ichbin@shadlen.org> wrote: > > >> No professional in their right mind... > > > Argh! "s/he" may be distracting but is at least arguably not > > gramatically wrong. "Professional" is singular; "their" is > > plural. You cannot use one as a substitute for the other. > > *Their* may be singular, though nonstandard. For example, Random House > (1975) sez: *2*. _Nonstandard_ (used after an indefinite singular > antecedent in place of the definite masculine form "his" or the > definite feminine form "her"); _Somebody left their book on the > table._ From, IIRC, NPR's "Language Pet Peeves", either Saturday or Sunday evening on All Things Considered, "their" was common usage _prior_ to the 19th century, for "singular of unspecified sex". So their! /me ducks -- Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/ What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? Support the EFF, they support you: http://www.eff.org/
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