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c4a1i.htf
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1996-11-05
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162 lines
C4A1i
Personal Pronoun with Indefinite
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Pronoun
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C4A1i.1
When indefinite pronouns serve as
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antecedents for pronouns, the personal pronoun must
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agree in number with the indefinite pronoun: singular
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indefinite pronouns take singular personal pronouns,
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plural indefinite pronouns take plural personal
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pronouns.
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Agreement with indefinite pronouns does not sound
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difficult in theory, but agreement with the singular
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indefinite pronouns has become rather troublesome in
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practice because of the issue of gender. Indefinite
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pronouns do not reflect gender, but personal
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pronouns do. Consider the example that follows.
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Everybody in class brought his lunch on "bag day."
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If everyone in class is not male, we may prefer the
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construction below.
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Everybody in class brought his or her lunch on
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"bag day."
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Although accurate and grammatically correct, the
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construction above is awkward. Frequently, the
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resolution to this dilemma in spoken English is to use
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a plural personal pronoun as shown below.
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Everybody in class brought their lunch on "bag day."
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There may come a time when using
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their
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to mean
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his
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or
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her
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is acceptable in standard English, but currently,
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such usage is still considered incorrect. The best
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solution in many cases may be to reword the
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sentence-use a noun rather than an indefinite
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pronoun.
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The students in class brought their lunches on
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"bag day."
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