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The history of English singular they
Jul. 31st, 2019 06:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pauamma"Usage of singular they has seen a progression from indefinite singular referents of unspecified gender, to definite singular referents of unspecified gender, to definite singular referents of known gender but unspecified identity, to definite singular referents of known birth sex and specified identity"Can anyone put approximate dates on the stages described here? It seems to me that dating all of them back to "Shakespeare and before him Chaucer" as if singular they were a monolithic thing is misleading.
