It’s been a minute (as the cool kids say) since writer Émile Zola wrote his open letter “J’accuse…!” (published on January 13, 1898, in the newspaper L’Aurore) accusing France’s government of anti-Semitism in the trial and sentencing of Alfred Dreyfus for espionage.
I’m sure you caught the reference in the title above. In my case, however, I’m taking a stand not for a French army officer but for the English language and the writing craft…in refusing to submit to the increasingly widespread acceptance of:
…the use of the pronoun them to refer to singular antecedents. I know that some influential and otherwise principled people (I won’t mention any names so as to protect my boss, Steve Laube) have surrendered to this trend. And such constructions as “any person who uses his or her linguistic sophistication as a badge of honor, etc.” can be painfully awkward. And, sure, the binary “his or her” rubs some people the wrong way. Yes, yes, yes. But that’s just tough. Person is singular, them is plural. Fight me all you want, but I worked hard for my C+ in second grade English, so J’refuse…!
…the use of the phrase “begs the question” to mean “prompts the question.” “Beg the question” is a phrase referring to a logical fallacy, that of assuming the truth of something for which you’re trying to argue. Hard to follow, I know. And almost no one (other than scholastic debate teams, perhaps) ever uses “begs the question” properly. So please, please erase it from your vocabulary. When you’re about to say “begs the question,” just say “raises the question” or “prompts the question.” I beg you.
…the use of the word blog when you mean “blog post.” The word blog comes from the portmanteau “weblog,” coined in the 1990s. A blog is a website (or portion of a website) that features regular informative and helpful (one may hope) posts. What you’re reading right now is a “blog post” on a blog…that is one feature of the Steve Laube website. See how simple that is? You’re welcome.
Call me a Luddite, but while each of these errors (“errors, I tell you!”) has become so common that the wrong usage seems to be accepted, J’refuse! And I hope my writer friends will join me in this principled stand. If not, you may have to pardon my French.
It is THEM, not her or him,
and then they go and tell you that
they are past gender (pretty grim!)
and self-identity as CAT,
which I’m afraid does beg the question
(a subject for some in-depth talks),
is it polite to make suggestion
that they’re supplied a litter box?
And if they one day be DOG
(you’ve turned white like you’ve seen a ghost),
will they go and write a blog
’bout their attachment to a post?
The world’s so hard to understand;
I’ll go ask Elvis at Graceland.
Nice, 3 in one!😅
I have too much fun sometimes, Kelsey!
What would Elvis say, one wonders?
Aye, Bob, and this world grows colder by the day to Luddite writers. But
mischievous writers (I are one) also fight for their right to play away with
English language and syntax–even spelling. Leave us be! We don’t plan to
change the rules, just ignore them at will. And maybe, just maybe, we will
find editors who aren’t sticklerites. These be few. (And we are extremely
grateful that Émile Zola wrote “J’Accuse”, which is still a highly relevant book.)
Gotta run. Andrew, proofread this for me, will ya?
My father was not so much a mischevious writer as a mischevious speaker. “Dad jokes” of today have nothing on him. One favorite, if he were driving us somewhere:
“What’s that in the road? A head?”
Grammar is supposed to facilitate communication, but to be fair all of us could identify numerous examples of common usage which obscures rather than clarifies.
Ditto on that. How many times does “idiot” become “retarded” become “slow” become “handicapped” become “special needs” etc etc ad infinitum before people realize that whatever stigma may attach to a person or persons, the stigma always re-attaches to the new term? Running away from a problem never resolves it.
Je t’applaudis.
You are civilization’s last hope, Bob!
Great post, Bob. And thank you for assuming we are all educated enough to have read Zola. I have a great- niece who no longer wants to be known as her, or even him for that matter, but they. It goes against what I learned in second grade English as well. So as not to distress her parents, I will do as they wish(see how confusing this is? Am I referring to the parents or the niece?). In published writing there must be a better way. I personally like s/he when gender is unknown but that has never caught on.
THANK YOU—finally, someone addresses “begs the question.” I don’t know why that one bugs me the most, but I have to fight my inner Grammar Floozy to keep from correcting speakers every time I hear it. Or maybe I should let my Grammar Floozy fly free . . .
Grammar Floozy. heh, heh, heh …
The Grammar Floozy should always be set free to fly. Elle est une nécessité.
Zola or
Cola
Better than
Ebola
I’m short on words after reading Bob’s entry, Andrew.
I’m glad you wrote this article. I’ve stayed with he/she, rather than they/them. Although I have caved in at times. It’s tough when the NYC public school administrators have (under the table or otherwise) banned teachers from using he/she when referring to students. I don’t mean to offend anyone, but the plural just doesn’t make sense.
I thought I would write something funny about begging the question, but Andrew has already done it much better (as usual). So this is serious. Incorrectly using “begging the question” and “blog” are quite annoying (as are great many other similar errors) but the use of “them” is a whole nother (oops!) story. It isn’t really an error due to ignorance, but a deliberate and politically motivated attempt to change people’s perceptions of reality. The modern myth of a sexual continuum rather than the biological reality of binary sex, is part of the underlying neo-Marxist ideology that has captured a good deal of liberal or left wing thought. The idea is that trans people are oppressed, and thus must be protected at all costs (the essence of neo-Marxism). Any hint that gender dysphoria might be in the majority of cases the result of a mental health disorder, is considered to be violent transphobia and must be condemned, science be damned. Therefore refusing to use “them” when referring to a very confused individual is more than just defending good English. It is also making an important point about the nature of reality, and a blow against the creeping evil of neo Marxism.
Bob, you J’slay me. Thanks for taking a stand and posting a watch on our language.
This English teacher j’agrees.
Moi aussi!
Praise God! Someone else is irritated by the use of “them” with singular nouns! Have I died and gone to heaven, or has America become the death of English?
Merci. Je suis d’accord.
Shout it from the rooftops!
Funny, though, I almost never seem to read “they,” them,” or “their” when the subject is a singular male. It seems to be a “racheted mechanism,” that is, one that only goes one way. What irks many of my friends, male and female, is the apparent assumption that everyone is “non binary” and wants to be called “they, them.” Je suis d’accord. Ils ne consentent pas!
You nailed it. Thanks for clearing the air on these.
Je refuse aussi de faire ces choses.
YES! ‘Them’ to refer to he or she instead of him or her is just cowardice. He or she, him or her does not name a gender regardless of protests to the contrary. I remember when the rule was to use he/him for any person whose gender was unknown. Nonbinary is a whole other can of worms
But I like begging questions …
Keep holding the line, Bob! Keep holding the line! 🙂
Oh the blog one … I hear that used for BLOGPOST way too much! That one gets me every time a person says it. I try as hard as I can to keep my lips together – but often I just can’t and have to jump in and say, do you mean your blog post—the post you’ll include on your blog?