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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!mmm!mrgofor
From: mrgofor@mmm.UUCP (MKR)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Grammar and Spelling on the Net
Message-ID: <604@mmm.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Mar-86 11:17:02 EST
Article-I.D.: mmm.604
Posted: Fri Mar 14 11:17:02 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 16-Mar-86 10:00:17 EST
References: <235@pttesac.UUCP> <33100034@ISM780.UUCP>
Reply-To: mrgofor@mmm.UUCP (MKR)
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Lines: 47

In article <528@dsi1.UUCP> lee@dsi1.UUCP (Lee Hagerty) writes:
>In article <2867@amdahl.UUCP> gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett) writes:
>>I am shocked and appalled by the objections raised to sentences
>>such as:
>>
>>	"Each person does as they think best."
>>
>>This is not ungrammatical, wrong, in error, mistaken, illiterate,
>>or otherwise stupid.  Those of you who believe otherwise should
>>read my previous posting (a quote of respectable texts on
>>the English language, including the OED).
>
>I didn't see your previous postings.  If I had, I would still consider
>your example sentence to be wrong.  I am one of those who believes that
>pronouns must agree with their antecedents, or that a pronoun agrees with
>its antecedent.  I understand that "they" has been accepted in some
>circles when referring to an indefinite third-person singular antecedent.
>However, this can lead to unclear writing.  "Each person does as they
>think (collectively) best" or "each person does as they think
>(individually) best"--which one is meant in your example?
>
>Lee

	But, but, but... You're saying that you don't care what the 
authoritative sources say (can we agree on the OED as an authoritative 
source?), *you* think it's wrong, so there! Hmmmm. I think the
point is that, according to the OED, the pronoun and the antecedent
*do indeed* agree.

	As for your nit-picky complaint about the ambiguity of the
sentence - change it to be "correct":

	"Each person does as he thinks best."

	Does each person do as (he the person) or (he some other person)
thinks best? The ambiguity is not the fault of disagreeing plurality.
Perhaps the sentence should be:

	"Each person does as the person mentioned in the first part
of this sentence thinks best." :-)


-- 
					--MKR

Sometimes even the President of the United States must have to 
stand naked.    - Dylan