474 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2021
  2. Sep 2021
    1. In 2014, the Usage Panel overwhelmingly preferred the traditional pronunciation for asterisk, although 24 percent found the asterix pronunciation acceptable and 19 percent found asterick acceptable. A mere 7 percent personally preferred the asterix pronunciation, and only 6 percent preferred the asterick one.
    1. Let's look at a concrete example before going deeper. Consider someone who calls himself Cookie Monster. Saying that he is a cookie monster conveys the idea that there is a group of entities that are each called cookie monster, and he is one of them. Saying that he is the cookie monster conveys either that the 'group' of entities really has only one member (him), or that he is the most outstanding member of the group. In each case, the focus is on some kind of classification scheme. Saying that he is cookie monster says something about him personally - he really enjoys cookies, eat them messily, etc.
    2. In the first example, Doctor is being used as the name of the person; the doctor is more of a descriptive phrase. It's short for Doctor <his name>. tend bar is a set phrase, it's a synonym for being a bartender. It's also similar to the way other people describe their work: a mailman could say I deliver mail, a programmer would say I write code, a garbageman would say I collect garbage, and a composer would say I write music. These are all using the noun to refer to the general concept, rather than any specific item, so no article is needed. You would add an article when you need to be specific, e.g. I write the music in TV commercials. ShareShare a link to this answer (Includes your user id)Copy linkCC BY-SA 3.0 Edit Follow Follow this answer to receive notifications answered Apr 15 '15 at 21:18 BarmarBarmar 15.2k11 gold badge2525 silver badges4242 bronze badges 13 3 Your examples suggest bar is a mass noun, but I don't believe it functions as such— the entire phrase refers to an activity. It's more like saying I play ball than I write music. – choster Apr 15 '15 at 21:25 @choster There are varying degrees of cohesiveness in these verb + noun strings. They're very hard to categorise accurately. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 20 '18 at 0:40 @EdwinAshworth True. My last example would be perfectly fine if it were I write music in TV commercials and a mailman could say I deliver the mail. – Barmar Jan 20 '18 at 0:42 And we've had the 'He's in hospital / *'He's in infirmary' / 'He's in theatre' / *'He's in ward' kerfuffle. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 20 '18 at 0:57 @EdwinAshworth Those are also AmEn vs BrEn differences. We don't say "in hospital" here in America. – Barmar Jan 20 '18 at 1:00
  3. Aug 2021
  4. Jul 2021
    1. En dashes, which are about the width of an upper-case N, are often mistaken for hyphens. But, traditionally, en dashes function as a kind of super hyphen. They’re meant to give you a little extra glue when you have a compound modifier that includes a multi-word element that can’t easily be hyphenated. For example, the phrase Elvis Presley–style dance moves uses an en dash because Elvis-Presley-style dance moves is awkward; “Elvis Presley” isn’t a compound modifier, so hyphenating it looks odd. But, keep in mind, not all readers will notice en dashes or understand what they mean. Sometimes, it’s better to simply reword the phrase. Elvis Presley–style dance moves or: dance moves like Elvis Presley’s pre–World War II buildings or: buildings constructed before World War II En dashes are also used to show ranges of numbers, such as times, page numbers, or scores (I’ll schedule you from 4:30–5:00). But, outside of formal printed publications, this type of en dash is commonly replaced with a simple hyphen.
  5. Apr 2021
    1. Sentence joining with Coach and his assistant Coach

      Sentence variety lessons

  6. Mar 2021
    1. BASIC GRAMMAR

      Xále (boy) bi (the) Wolof (wolof). The boy is Wolof.

      Jigéen (woman) ji (the) déf (be) féébar (sick). The woman is sick.

      Xále (noun) bi (article) Wolof (noun). The boy is Wolof.

      Jigéen (noun) ji (article) déf (verb) féébar (adjective). The woman is sick.

      Xále bi (subject) Wolof (object). The boy is Wolof.

      Jigéen ji (subject) déf (verb) féébar (object). The woman is sick.

  7. Feb 2021
    1. A good trick to remember on to vs. onto is to mentally say “up” before on in a sentence. If it still makes sense, then onto is probably the correct choice.
    1. In that film, he replaced Kevin Spacey in the role of J. Paul Getty after Spacey had an #MeToo downfall.

      apparently the # predicates the use of an instead of a? I'll have to look this up in some style guides. It sounds awkward to say.

  8. Dec 2020
    1. Include articles, such as the. Articles help readers and translation software identify the nouns and modifiers in a sentence. Examples Empty the container. The empty container
  9. Nov 2020
    1. Keep sentences small. They’re easier to work with that way.If something doesn’t feel right, there’s a problem with one or more of your sentences. Listen to that feeling. Try to pinpoint exactly which word or phrase is triggering it. Naming exactly what’s wrong, in grammatical terminology or otherwise, will come later.Understanding a word’s etymology will teach you how to use it. Words contain imprints of their histories.The subject of a sentence should appear as close to the beginning of a sentence as possible.You don’t have to “grab” anyone with the first line of your story. Just write a simple sentence that says what you want it to say. It’s harder than it sounds! And also very effective, if done well.“A writer’s real work is the endless winnowing of sentences, the relentless exploration of possibilities, the effort, over and over again, to see in what you started out to say the possibility of saying something you didn’t know you could.”Noun phrases (“the realization that…”) almost always sound clunky and dead. Try rewriting them as verb phrases (“realizing that…”).Prepositions are difficult to get right, even for native English speakers.A reader’s experience has nothing to do with a writer’s. A sentence that reads “naturally” or “conversationally” to a reader may have been painstakingly assembled by a stressed-out writer who wishes they could sound more natural or conversational.

      How to write more effectively:

      • Keep sentences small. They’re easier to work with that way.

      • If something doesn’t feel right, there’s a problem with one or more of your sentences. Listen to that feeling. Try to pinpoint exactly which word or phrase is triggering it. Naming exactly what’s wrong, in grammatical terminology or otherwise, will come later.

      • Understanding a word’s etymology will teach you how to use it. Words contain imprints of their histories.

      • The subject of a sentence should appear as close to the beginning of a sentence as possible.

      • You don’t have to “grab” anyone with the first line of your story. Just write a simple sentence that says what you want it to say. It’s harder than it sounds! And also very effective, if done well.

      • “A writer’s real work is the endless winnowing of sentences, the relentless exploration of possibilities, the effort, over and over again, to see in what you started out to say the possibility of saying something you didn’t know you could.”

      • Noun phrases (“the realization that…”) almost always sound clunky and dead. Try rewriting them as verb phrases (“realizing that…”).

      • Prepositions are difficult to get right, even for native English speakers.

      • A reader’s experience has nothing to do with a writer’s. A sentence that reads “naturally” or “conversationally” to a reader may have been painstakingly assembled by a stressed-out writer who wishes they could sound more natural or conversational.

    1. The easy way to tell if you need who or whom is to substitute it for he or him and see which one makes sense.

      Yep, that's the trick that I use too :)

  10. Oct 2020
  11. Sep 2020
  12. Aug 2020
    1. Lie: I felt sick, so I lay down.Here’s where it can get a bit tricky. The past tense of lie is lay, but not because there is any overlap between the two verbs. So when you say, “I lay down for a nap,” you’re actually using the verb lie, not lay, despite the way it sounds.
  13. Jun 2020
  14. May 2020
  15. Apr 2020
  16. Mar 2020
    1. This will of course depend on your perspective, but: beware Finnish and other highly inflected languages. As a grammar nerd, I actually love this stuff. But judging by my colleagues, you won’t.
  17. Feb 2020
    1. grammar : a punctuation mark — that is used especially to indicate a break in the thought or structure of a sentence
    1. as

      "as" is not necessary here. This is very minor mistake but since you are doing excellent job I am going to point out any mistake I find to contribute the project towards perfection.

  18. Dec 2019
    1. American People

      Here's another case of the mis-capitalization. American should be capitalized, but people should not.

    2. Impeachment Fever

      There are several instances in this document where words are improperly capitalized, presumably in an attempt to make them stand out and make them more memorable.

  19. Nov 2019
    1. Hundreds of studies — from eating better to avoiding the impulse to react to people on the basis of their skin color — have demonstrated

      examples

    2. “value bets”— bets when he actually had a good hand —

      to explain a word, can use --

  20. May 2019
    1. The aim of this book is to give you the knowledge and tools to write microcopy; and no, you don’t need to be a copywriter or content writer.

      This sentence is proof of the need for copyeditors.

    1. If we’re speaking of garden-variety errors, the most common error I’ve observed that manages to get past any number of sets of expert eyes and wind up printed in books is the use of “lead” where “led” is meant—that is, the past tense of the verb “to lead.”
    2. They mistake the apostrophe for a piece of punctuation when it is a spelling issue. 
    3. MN: You can have friends or you can correct people’s grammar.
    4. I still firmly believe that copy editors need only enough grammar to get them through the demands of their particular manuscripts; being a grammarian is entirely beside the point. Or to put it another way, grammar is part of what you do as a copy editor, but only a part. That said, it’s fun to know about the subjunctive, so I’ll concede that particular pleasure.

      Copyediting vs grammar knowledge. Or, and grammar knowledge.

  21. Feb 2019
    1. elocution

      More specifically, meaning: "the study of formal speaking in pronunciation, grammar, style, and tone."

    2. Chinese, says Bacon, is written "in Character� Real, which express neither letters nor words ... but things or notions;

      This notion of Chinese language is one that carries into the 20th century and has pretty far influence; Ernest Fenollosa's notes on Chinese characters and translations of Chinese poetry hugely influenced Ezra Pound and (by extension) 20th C poetry at large.

      In terms of this class, Chinese characters pose an interesting alternative to the subject-object grammar of English.

  22. Jan 2019
    1. The name Vatican city was first used in the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929, which established the modern city-state. The name is taken from Vatican Hill, the geographic location of the state. "Vatican" is derived from the name of an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum meaning garden, located in the general area the Romans called vaticanus ager, "Vatican territory".

      Named after "the" hill...

    1. “There are only three places that have a ‘the’ in the front of their name: the Vatican, The Hague, and the Bronx.” —Mary Higgins Clark
  23. Dec 2018
    1. six month

      six-month

    2. high speed

      high-speed

    3. time here, b

      My time here either

    4. desk,

      space for a desk, coffee table, and couch.

    5. or

      ***our

    6. here,

      no comma

    7. The specter of upcoming departure influenced behavior in a way that removed one from reality — academics in Lyon mattered less at home, new friends would return to their countries of origin and communication would lapse, and why invest for comfort when somewhere so briefly?

      This sentence is 44 words!!!

    8. we’d

      Your writing style is fairly formal. Make sure you're being aware and intentional with your use of contracts.

    9. fifteen minute

      fifteen-minute

    10. ,

      remove comma

  24. Oct 2018
    1. His most famous contribution to the study of grammar may have been his tentative suggestion that sentences ending with a preposition
    2. Lowth's grammar is the source of many of the prescriptive shibboleths that are studied in schools,
    1. It was the schoolteacher and writer Anne Fisher whose English primer of 1745 began the notion that it's somehow bad to use they in the plural and that he stands for both men and women.
  25. Sep 2018
    1. Him

      This use of the dative through me momentarily. With "Scyld gewat," it sounds like the archaic "Scyld betook himself," but it's not a direct object (because not an accusative) as a reflexive would be. I take it as a dative of interest: instead of saying a place where Scyld departed from or for, the construction indicates that Scyld departed himself—separated from life, or died.

    2. god

      Because Old English scribes did not distinguish between "God" and "good," this usage may give modern readers pause: we may look for a noun to go with "god" thinking that it is the adjective "good." But it really is the noun "God."

    3. Gardena

      The relationship of the two genitives is unclear: did "we learn of the might of the Spear-Danes, of the people-kings," as two separate things: the deeds of some people-kings (who may have been all Danes, or note) and the deeds of Danes? Or did "we learn of the might of the people-kings OF the Spear-Danes," which is narrower? The poem leaves the choice to the reader.

    4. gefrunon

      The grammar here is a little confusing: "gefrunon," "we learned," or "we heard," has two different kinds of objects. The first is a simple direct object: "we heard the might." The second is a clause "we heard how the nobles did courageous deeds."

    5. sceaþena þreatum, monegum mægþum

      The two consecutive datives make the sentence ambiguous. They could be in apposition: Scyld may be taking mead benches from "troops of enemies, many peoples." However, he could just as easily taking mead benches "by troops of enemes from many peoples." R.D. Fulk, Robert E. Bjork, and John D. Niles note both possibilities in their note to 4–5, Klaeber's Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburh, 4th ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), in their Commentary, page 111.

  26. Aug 2018
  27. edu522.networkedlearningcollaborative.com edu522.networkedlearningcollaborative.com
    1. Incessentaly correcting graamer

      This may be my favorite line of the entire code of conduct! I'm doing my best to resist....

  28. Jul 2018
    1. Incessentaly correcting graamer

      This has to be my favorite part of the entire code of conduct. It's just crying out for a comment. I shall, however, refrain.

    1. To begin to develop a grammar of fake news, I collected six types of false information we’ve seen this election season.
  29. Jun 2018
    1. t is not a pedagogical grammar resource, as it is not limited to the actual material covered in the first-year textbook (DiB).

      Prepare addiitional resources to explain and practice focus on grammar for class

  30. Mar 2018
    1. Becauseでしょう indicates guess, it can be used for current events and past events that we are not certain.

      This is like the subjunctive in English and Spanish, but instead uses a form or the copula, です, instead of conjugating the verb into another form.

    1. ています can be used to mean an action (instantaneous or continuative) takes place on a regular basis.

      For example, "Every year, many people die," or "Every day, he goes to work."

    2. For English, telling the difference between instantaneous and continuative verbs is easy, because we seldom, if ever, use “be +ing” form for the former. For Japanese, however, the situation is complicated, as ていますcan be used with both kinds of verb.

      There is no way to tell the continuity of a verb by simply looking at it. One must understand the concept before knowing the full meaning when paired with ています.

    1. use ‘本を貸していただけませんでしょうか’ to make it even politer.

      book PRT-OBJ lend/give-TE_FORM it-is-acceptable-NEG COPULA-SUGGESTIVE PRT-INTERROGATIVE. "Is it not acceptable to give me your book?"

    2. ‘本を貸してくださいませんか’ (Can’t you lend me your book?)

      (your) book PRT-OBJ give-TE_FRM please-NEG (cannot) PRT-INTEROG (?). "Can't you give/lend me your book?"

      Using くださいません is the negative of ください which, when coupled with か makes a polite order in the form of a question: instead of "Please give me your book," it is "Can't you lend me your book?"

    3. By asking questions, the listeners feel that they have a choice to say no and thus are not offended by your request. In Japanese, you should also ask questions when you ask for a favor.

      When you ask a question, you give the other person(s) the choice to say "Yes" or "No." This is much more polite than any order using 下さい.

    4. when you ask the same people to do something FOR you, e.g. lend you a book or sign a recommendation letter for you, you can’t just use ください.

      This is like a homeless person saying "give me money, sir." It is still an order.

  31. Jan 2018
  32. Dec 2017
    1. n bu

      maybe add a comma here

    2. They found that people’s ability to detect road hazards, reaction time, and control of the vehicle were all impaired by cell phone use.

      The sentence is confusing and incorrectly structured

    1. according to which being watched by others while performing a task causes physiological arousal, which increases an organism’s tendency to make the dominant response.

      You could revise it to say: He then constructed his drive theory, "where being watched by others while performing a task causes a physiological arousal, thus increasing the organism's tendency to make the dominant response."

  33. Oct 2017
    1. The FORM-CLASS words (sometimes called open or lexical words) contribute content-meaningto the text and comprise the central subject matter in dictionaries.Whereas STRUCTURE-CLASS words (sometimes called closed, grammatical, or function words) contributegrammatical-structural meaning to the text. That is, they signal the relationships betweenwords in a sentence and function to make a text cohesive. They work rather like mortarto connect the bricks of the form-class words to each other.

      The Form-Class words and the Structure-Class words

    2. The function of a word in a sentence—that is, its role and its relationship to otherwords—always determines its part of speech in that sentence.

      Parts of speech vs Function/Role of words.

    3. We certainly don't follow the Latin-based, old-fashioned advice that forbids splittingan infinitive verb 'to boldly go' or, ending a sentence with a preposition (‘I have nobodyto go with’). These rules were based on the fact that allLatin infinitives are expressed as one word. Also, that Latin prepositions are always placedbefore the noun, so can never appear at the end of a Latin sentenc

      Latin based rules that don't apply to English now. 1- Don't split infinitives 2- Don't end a sentence with a preposition

      There are more

    4. There are lots of other rules such as not starting a sentence with ‘and’, or ‘but’,or ‘because’ that you might remember from school, but these are what some grammarianscall ‘bogus’ or ‘zombie’ rules.

      Bogus/Zombie rules like:

      Don't start sentences with and, but or because

    5. Traditional grammar was based on nine parts of speech:

      9 parts of speech Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, Article, Conjunction, Preposition, Interjection.

    1. presents a more specific model of scientific research in psychology. The researcher (who more often than not is really a small group of researchers) formulates a research question, conducts a study designed to answer the question, analyzes the resulting data, draws conclusions about the answer to the question, and publishes the results so that they become part of the research literature. Because the research literature is one of the primary sources of new research questions, this process can be thought of as a cycle. New research leads to new questions, which lead to new research, and so on. Figure 1.1 also indicates that research questions can originate outside of this cycle either with informal observations or with practical problems that need to be solved. But even in these cases, the researcher would start by checking the research literature to see if the question had already been answered and to refine it based on what previous research had already found.

      This paragraph can be written better. Some sections of it are run on sentences, and maybe needs some decluttering? For example, "who more often than not.." and changed into, who are a small group of researchers, most of the time.

    2. For this reason, the evidence provided by scientific research may be viewed as a threat to a persons system of beliefs about the world.

      "persons" should be changed to "person's"

    1. This led to the hypothesis that people high in hypochondriasis would recall negative health-related words more accurately than people low in hypochondriasis but recall non-health-related words about the same as people low in hypochondriasis.

      Run on sentence. Period or comma would help break it up and make it easier to understand, try "This led to the hypothesis that people high in hypochondriasis would recall negative health-related words more accurately than people low in hypochondriasis, but would recall non-health-related words about the same as people low in hypochondriasis.

    1. group group

      "group" repeated twice

    2. But, we all know that is an estimate that sometimes be off.

      You can either say "But, we all know that is an estimate that CAN sometimes be off" or you can say "But, we all know that is an estimate that IS sometimes off".

    3. As a general rule, studies are higher in external validity when the participants and the situation studied are similar to those that the researchers want to generalize to and participants encounter everyday, often described as mundane realism.

      Correction "everyday" should be changed to "every day". "Everyday" is only used when it's an adjective.

    4. But how? Some clues come from data gathered at the end of the study, which showed that students who expected their rats to learn quickly felt more positively about their animals and reported behaving toward them in a more friendly manner (e.g., handling them more).

      Correction "more friendly" could be better phrased as "friendlier"

    1. For example, you can download a plug-in for your web-browser that let’s your seamlessly move content that you find on the web into Zotero.

      "let's" should be switched to "lets".

    1. An university instructor measures the time it takes her students to finish an exam by looking through the stack of exams at the end.

      Correction "An university instructor" should be switched to "A University instructor".

  34. Aug 2017
    1. We applied these guidelines for the definition of RASH. We restricted HTML, which does not use the aforementioned patterns in a systematic way, allowing the creation of arbitrary and, sometimes, quite ambiguous structures by selecting a good subset of elements expressive enough to capture the typical components of a scholarly article while being also well-designed, easy to reuse and robust.

      --> HTML does not use the aforementioned patterns in a systematic way, as it allows the creation of arbitrary and, sometimes, quite ambiguous structures.

      To apply the structural pattern guidelines for RASH, we restricted HTML by selecting a good subset of elements expressive enough to capture the typical components of a scholarly article while being also well-designed, easy to reuse and robust.

  35. Jul 2017
    1. Unit 2. Por and Para Prepositions All Students of Spanish discover quickly that the prepositions por and para are a force with which to be reckoned. At first, we discover that the both mean "for"; however, under colser inspection, we find out that each has several other meanings; some are shared by both, and others are unique to each one.

      Important information about por/ para

  36. Jun 2017
  37. May 2017
  38. Apr 2017
  39. Mar 2017
    1. love

      Should it say "I love"?

    2. lots

      delete

    3. 3

      three

    4. the

      delete the

    5. Travle

      Travel

    6. Coffee, Tea, and Wate

      lowercase

    7. to Profits

      insert registered trademark symbol

    8. the

      delete 'the'

    9. Profits

      Insert registered trademark symbol

    10. the

      delete 'the'

    11. that

      delete 'that'

    12. But they don’t just share stories: They also share their specific, concrete strategies they used to build their businesses beyond even what they imagined

      Rephrase to say: But they don’t just share stories, they also share their specific, concrete strategies used to build their businesses beyond their imagination.

    13. get clear

      gain clarity

    14. sit quiet and learn

      sit-quiet-and-learn

    15. 3

      three

    16. fears, doubts, and overwhelm

      overwhelm doesn't fit. "You'll leave behind your fears and doubts and immerse"

    17. at the event

      delete

    18. we

      delete we

    19. come

      change come to go

    20. e events!!

      Missing end quote"

    21. me

      my

    22. rothschild

      Is this a last name? If so, Capitalize.

    23. double

      doubled

    24. excel,

      End new combined sentence here with period. Start new sentence "You'll"

    25. le.

      Also it isn't a complete sentence, combine sentence with comma

    26. Profits

      Need Registered Trademark symbol

    27. Profits

      Need Registered Trademark symbol

    28. Yotu

      Remove accidental 't' inserted!!

    29. results

      result, not results

    30. Insert comma after deep

    1. At The New Yorker, it is a copy editor’s duty to deploy the serial comma, along with lots of other lip-smacking bits of punctuation, as a bulwark against barbarianism.

      I'm an enthusiast!

  40. Feb 2017
  41. Jan 2017
  42. Nov 2016
    1. guarantee

      You can't guarantee this. "In order to provide visualization"

    2. editions of the SAVE-SD workshop

      two SAVE-SD workshops (it's not an edition)

    3. can find hard

      can find it hard

    4. in addition to

      other than

    5. in

      to

    6. This is, actually, one of the crucial step to guarantee the use of RASH

      "We believe this is essential to help uptake of RASH usage"

    7. RASH, of any

      "RASH or any"

    8. developed will take care about deciding

      the Javascript decide what..

    9. scripts

      Javascript script -> Javascript

    10. Among other things above just using the RASH grammar only, this script adds relatively sophisticated checking of the datatype microsyntaxes of attribute values.

      Simplify setence: This script also checks datatype microsyntaxes.

    11. It is worth noticing that, excepting three properties from schema.org for defining author's metadata (see Section 2 of the RASH documentation for additional details), RASH does not constrain any particular vocabulary for introducing RDF statements

      Rephrase: It is worth noticing that RASH does not constrain any particular vocabulary for introducing RDF statements, except three properties from schema.org for defining author's metadata (see Section 2 of the RASH documentation for additional details),

    12. the

      "Both options"

    13. other two ways

      "two other ways"

    14. The first,

      Remove comma

    15. A different discourse can be done for the pattern popup, which is used for any structure that, while still not allowing text content inside itself, is nonetheless found in elements with a mixed content context [+t+s], and it is meant to represent complex substructures that interrupt but do not break the main flow of the text,

      I'm afraid I didn't understand these sentences well - could they be rephrased or shortened?

    16. acceptable/accepted

      "acceptable for"

    17. environment

      such an environment

    18. Formulas have been taken in particular consideration, since different ways are possible so as to implement them

      Rephrase to avoid "possible so as" and use active language. "We have taken particular considerations to formulas, since there are different ways to implement them"

    19. allows

      allows the (..)

    20. contain additional ones

      additional elements

    21. this is a quite odd situation

      rephrase to professional English

    22. a bunch of

      several

    23. development robust

      development of robust

    24. , we developed

      "which we have developed over the past few years"

    25. imprecise on the full HTML.

      rephrase "on the HTML"

    26. as primary language

      as the primary format

    27. In services made available by the company would enable

      I don't understand this sentence - rephrase?

    28. i.e.,

      delete "i.e."

    29. i.e.

      delete "i.e". (which means "for example")

  43. Sep 2016
    1. According to the language periodical Språktidningen, ‘hen’ was by 2014 used once in the Swedish media for every 300 used of ‘hon’ or ‘han’, up from one in every 13,000 in 2011

      Increasing rate of usage of hen vs. hon or han: 1/13,000 in 2011; 1/300 in 2014.

    2. A Swedish headteacher has been reported to the country’s Equality Ombudsman for refusing to use ‘hen’, the new gender-neutral pronoun, in what could be a landmark case for transgender rights.

      Legal enforcement of gender pronoun preference

    1. The Swedish school system has wholeheartedly, and probably too quickly and eagerly, embraced this new agenda. Last fall, 200 teachers attended a major government-sponsored conference discussing how to avoid "traditional gender patterns" in schools. At Egalia, one model Stockholm preschool, everything from the decoration to the books and toys are carefully selected to promote a gender-equal perspective and to avoid traditional presentations of gender and parenting roles

      Swedish school system has enforced use of hen

    1. "ip," "nis," and "hiser"

      ip, nis, hiser non-binary gender pronouns

    2. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee LGBT Resource Centre card: declines non-binary gender pronouns

    3. "It maximises the student's ability to control their identity," says Keith Williams, the university's registrar, who helped to launch the updated student information system in 2009

      PGP allows students to control their identity

    4. For example, when new students attended orientation sessions at American University in Washington DC a few months ago, they were asked to introduce themselves with their name, hometown, and preferred gender pronoun (sometimes abbreviated to PGP).

      Example of introducing by Preferred Gender Pronoun

    1. “We introduce ourselves with the pronouns we use and explain why that’s done,” they said. “Literally from the day that students step on campus for the first time, we want them to know about nonbinary pronouns and that we are not going to assume their pronouns.”

      Explaining the pronouns you want to use in social interactions.

    2. “My name is Aubri and I use they/them pronouns, what pronouns do you use?” Drake said. “It should be part of social interaction.”

      How pronoun use should be negotiated in conversation,

    3. The use of they/them to identify a single person, rather than two or more people, has not been without controversy.Maryland state education official Andy Smarick made headlines earlier this month after sharing his thoughts via Twitter on Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s use of the singular “they” when referring to one of the dictionary’s staffers.“The singular they is an affront to grammar. Language rules are all that separates us from animals. We. Must. Stand. Firm,” Smarick wrote in a tweet that has since been deleted.The dictionary retorted in a tweet: “Then you’re talking to the wrong dictionary — we’re descriptivists. We follow language, language doesn’t follow us.”

      Smarick vs. Webster's prescriptivism debate

    4. Wald settled on ey/em — a pronoun set that comes from the ends of the words “they” and “them.”“Now when I introduce my pronouns, I usually say ‘ey/em, or anything else gender-neutral,’” ey said.

      ey and em as non-binary pronouns

    1. We still need deliberate effort to remove sexism – like the Washington Post’s recent move from she/he to they as their default pronoun.

      Washington Post decision to use they for neutral singular

    2. Jane Austen uses they in the singular 75 times in Pride and Prejudice (1813) and as Rosalind muses in 1848’s Vanity Fair: “A person can’t help their birth.”

      Jane Austen use of they; also Thackeray

    3. Around 1809, Samuel Taylor Coleridge rejected “he” as the generic pronoun (“in order to avoid particularising man or woman, or in order to express either sex indifferently”, he wrote in his notebooks), settling on “it” as an ideal, neutral solution

      Coleridge uses "it" for neutral singular

    4. heesh

      AA Milne's solution to neutral pronoun

    5. Shakespeare followed in 1594, in The Comedy of Errors: “There’s not a man I meet but doth salute me/As if I were their well-acquainted friend”

      Shakespeare uses they for singular in comedy of errors.

    6. At the start of 2016, the good folks of the American Dialect Society got together to crown their Word of the Year. They (see what I’m doing here) have decided that the word could now be used as a singular pronoun, flexing the English language so a plural could denote a singular, genderless, individual.

      They American Dialect Society Word of the Year 2016

    7. Geoffrey Chaucer in 1395, who wrote in The Pardoner’s Tale: “And whoso fyndeth hym out of swich blame, They wol come up…”

      Chaucer use of they for singular

  44. Aug 2016