單數 they 是 they 或它的詞形變化形式（例如 them 或 their）的用法，用於指單獨一個人，作為單數形式。 典型地，這種情況出現於不確定的性別，例句： Everyone returned to their seats Somebody left their umbrella in the office Would they please collect it If a person doesnt want to go on living they are often very difficult to help The patient should be told at the outset how much they will be required to pay But a journalist should not be forced to reveal their sources 類似地，這種情況也可以應用於派生詞，例如 themself 或 themselves。 這種用法的一個原因是英語沒有專用於不確定性別的單數人稱代詞。 有些情況，這種用法可以被解釋為一種名義約定，因為如 everyone 之類的單詞，雖然在語法上是單數形式，但事實上卻是複數的意義。 這種用法逐漸變多的一個原因可能是 20 世紀的性別包容語言運動，但是它已經被有影響力的作家使用了好幾個世紀。 雖然單數 they 的用法歷史悠久，並且在日常英語中廣泛使用，但是這種用法從 19 世紀末開始還是一直受到批評，並且大家的認可度也不同。 詞形變化形式與物主代詞 第三人稱代詞的詞形變化形式 主格 賓格 形容詞性物主代詞 名詞性物主代詞 反身代詞 He He laughs I hug him His hair grows I use his He feeds himself She She laughs I hug her Her hair grows I use hers She feeds herself 原型 they When I tell my children a joke they laugh Whether they win or lose I hug them As long as people live their hair grows Most of my friends have cell phones so I use theirs The children feed themselves 單數 they When I tell someone a joke they laugh When I greet a friend I hug them When someone does not get a haircut their hair grows long If my mobile phone runs out of power a friend lets me borrow theirs Each child feeds themself（不規範） 性別通用 he When I tell someone a joke he laughs When I greet a friend I hug him When someone does not get a haircut his hair grows long If my mobile phone runs out of power a friend lets me borrow his Each child feeds himself 單數 they 與 正常 的複數 they 有相同的詞形變化形式，即 them 和 their。它們通常都使用相同的動詞形式，也就是說 when I tell someone a joke they laughs 是不規範的。 反身代詞 themselves 有時也被使用，但是還有一個可選的反身代詞形式 themself。雖然 themself 有歷史悠久並且在 20 世紀 80 年代復活了，但是它還是依然較少使用，並且只被少數人認可。 它在指代性別不明的單個人的時候有時使用，因為這時候複數形式 themselves 看起來不協調，例如 It is not an actor pretending to be Reagan or Thatcher it is in grotesque form the person themselfHislop 1984 引自 Fowlers 單數 themself 在加拿大聯邦法律文字中被系統化地使用，用於區別於複數 themselves。 Where a recipient of an allowance under section 4 absents themself from Canada War Veterans Allowance Act section 14 the following conditions are imposed on a person or group of persons in respect of whom a deposit is required to present themself or themselves at the time and place that an officer or the Immigration Division requires them to appear to comply with any obligation imposed on them under the ActImmigration and Refugee Protection Regulations section 48 用法 知名作家的一些老舊用法 早在 14 世紀的中古英語，they 就一直被用於單數形式。 在許多知名作家的著作中都能看來這種用法，包括傑弗裡喬叟、威廉莎士比亞、簡奧斯丁、威廉梅克比斯薩克雷和蕭伯納： And whoso fyndeth hym out of swich blame They wol come up Chaucer The Pardoners Prologue c 1395 引用自 Jespersen 在《MerriamWebsters Concise Dictionary of English Usage》。 Tis meet that some more audience than a mother since nature makes them partial should oerhear the speech Shakespeare Hamlet 1599 引用自《MerriamWebsters Concise Dictionary of English Usage》。 If a person is born of a gloomy temper they cannot help it Chesterfield 《Letter to his son》 1759 引用自《Fowlers》。 Now nobody does anything well that they cannot help doing Ruskin 《The Crown of Wild Olive》 1866 引用自《Fowlers》。 Nobody in their senses would give sixpence on the strength of a promissory note of the kind Bagehot 《The Liberal Magazine》 1910 引用自《Fowlers》。 I would have every body marry if they can do it properly Austen 《Mansfield Park》 1814 引用自《MerriamWebsters Concise Dictionary of English Usage》。 Caesar No Cleopatra No man goes to battle to be killed Cleopatra But they do get killed Shaw Caesar and Cleopatra 1901 引用自《MerriamWebsters Concise Dictionary of English Usage》。 A person cant help their birth W M Thackeray Vanity Fair 1848 引用自《MerriamWebsters Concise Dictionary of English Usage》。 同時，除了使用 they，使用代詞 he 作為（據稱的）性別中性代詞也被認可，如下所述： Suppose the life and fortune of every one of us would depend on his winning or losing a game of chess Thomas Huxley A Liberal Education 1868 引自 Baskervill If any one did not know it it was his own fault George Washington Cable Old Creole Days 1879 引自 Baskervill No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality Article 15 Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 在威廉梅克比斯薩克雷的著作中，兩個都出現過： A person cant help their birthRosalind in W M Thackeray Vanity Fair 1848 引用自《牛津英語詞典》於 Curzan 在《Gender Shifts in the History of English》。 與 Every person who turns this page has his own little diary W M Thackeray On Letts Diary 1869 引用自 Baskervill 《An English Grammar》。 並且威廉卡克斯頓寫道： Eche of theym sholde make theymselfe redy Caxton 《Sonnes of Aymon》 c 1489 alongside Who of thise wormes shall be byten He must have triacle Yf not that he shall deye Caxton 《Dialogues in French and English》 c 1483 19 世紀的性別通用 he 的趨勢 在非正式英語中使用 he 而非 they 的用法的倡導，可以在 18 世紀中葉找到，在的《A New Grammar》中寫道： 1895 年的語法（Baskervill WM 與 Sewell JW 的《An English Grammar for the Use of High School Academy and College Class》）標記了單數 they 的通用的用法，但是推薦用性別通用 he，基於數協議： Baskervill 給出了知名作家的使用單數 they 的一些例子，包括 Every one must judge according to their own feelings Byron Werner 1823 quoted as Every one must judge of sic their own feelings Had the Doctor been contented to take my dining tables as any body in their senses would have done Austen Mansfield Park 1814 If the part deserve any comment every considering Christian will make it to themselves as they go Defoe The Family Instructor 1816 Every persons happiness depends in part upon the respect they meet in the world Paley 但是他更喜歡使用 he： Baskervill An English Grammar 1850 年，英國議會通過了一個法案，其中說了，在議會的法案中使用的時候 陽性詞必須被視為包括女性。 據稱的性別中性的 he 的用法直到至少 20 世紀 60 年代還能用，雖然有一些 he 的用法後來因笨拙或愚蠢而被批評，例如指代： 兩性的不確定的人： the ideal that every boy and girl should be so equipped that he shall not be handicapped in his struggle for social progress CC Fries American English Grammar 1940 兩性的已知的人： She and Louis had a gamewho could find the ugliest photograph of himself Joseph P Lash Eleanor and Franklin 1971 或者明顯可以假設為女人的不確定的人： everyone will be entitled to decide for himself whether or not to have an abortion Albert Bleumenthal NY State Assembly 1975 據稱的性別中性的 he 的當代用法 當代著作在指代性別通用或不確定的前面出現的詞的時候，有時還是可以看到使用 he。 有時指代的人幾乎可以確定為男的，例如 The patient should be informed of his therapeutic options 關於前列腺癌的文字 2004 有時前面出現的詞指代的人很可能只是男的或者這種職業傳統上只有男性人員： It wouldnt be as if the lone astronaut would be completely by himself 2008 Kitchen table issues are ones the next president can actually do something about if he actually cares about it More likely if she cares about it Hillary Rodham Clinton 2008 還有其它情況，前面的詞可能指代： 一個不確定的人，兩個性別都有可能： Now a writer is entitled to have a Roget on his deskBarzun 1985 quoted in MerriamWebsters Concise Dictionary of English Usage Theyre going to appoint a new manager Well I hope he does a better job than the present one A Member of Parliament should always live in his constituency 甚至在 2010 年，還是可以發現性別通用 he 的建議： 當不定代詞在前面使用時，需要一個單數的主格、賓格與物主代詞 Everyone did as he pleased 在非正式口語中，複數代詞經常被用於當前面的詞不確定的時候。但是這種結構現在一般不合適用於正式發言或者書面上。 非正式： Somebody should let you borrow their book 正式： Somebody should let you borrow his book Choy Basic Grammar and Usage 20 世紀開始趨於使用性別中性語言 在 20 世紀的下半個世紀，女權主義者關注 性別歧視主義 的男性導向式語言。不但包括 man 性別通用，而且包括 he 作為性別通用代詞。 爭論點是 he 不能明智地作為性別通用代詞，包括男人與女人。 William Safire 在他的《紐約時報》的 On Language 專欄上贊同了性別通用 he，提及口訣 男性包羅女性。 Brooklyn 的 C Adendyck 對《紐約時報》寫了一個回覆： 1980 年，運動受到廣泛支援，許多組織，包括絕大多數出版社，都發行了性別中性語言的使用指南。 用於特定的知名人士 在一些情況，可能知道個體但卻用 they 來指代，因為性別未知或者因為他 她偏愛使用 they，例如社會媒體應用，可能允許賬號持有者來選擇非常規性別例如性別酷兒或雙性別和一個代詞，包括他們可能願意使用的 theythem。 當代用法 自從 20 世紀 60 年代以來，在書面語和口語中使用陽性通用名詞和代詞的頻率就在一減少。20 世紀 90 年代在澳大利亞收集的自發講話語料庫中，單數 they 變最頻繁使用的通用代詞。單數 they 的使用上升的原因，至少是部分原因，是性別中性語言的使用的增長。一百年前的作者用 he 作為不確定性別的指代時可能沒有顧慮，但是如今的作者經常會感覺這麼用不自在。在正式場合的一種方案通常是寫 he or she 或者其它類似的，但是過度使用這種方式感覺很彆扭，或者感覺很政治正確，或者都有。 當代用法中，單數 they 常被用於指定性別不確定的先行詞，至少有一些人這麼用，例如當先行詞的性別或數量不確定、未知或未揭露的時候。 例子包括不同型別的用法。 用作指代代詞先行詞 單數先行詞可以是一個代詞，例如 everybody、someone、anybody 或者疑問代詞例如 who： 先行詞為 everybody、everyone 等等： Everybody was crouched behind the furniture to surprise me and they tried to But I already knew they were there Garner 提供的例子。 Everyone promised to behave themselves Huddleston 等人提供的例子。 Everyone returned to their seats Pinker 提供的例子。 先行詞為 nobody 或 no one： Nobody was late were they Swan 提供的例子。 No one put their hand up Huddleston 等人提供的例子。 No one felt they had been misled Huddleston 等人提供的例子。 先行詞為 somebody 或 someone： I feel that if someone is not doing their job it should be called to their attention 一份美國的報紙（1984），Fowler 引用。 先行詞為 anybody 或 anyone If anyone tells you that Americas best days are behind her then theyre looking the wrong way 喬治布什總統，1991 年國情諮文；quoted by Garner Anyone can set themselves up as an acupuncturistSarah Lonsdale Sharp Practice Pricks Reputation of Acupuncture 《觀察者》1991 年 12 月 15 日，Garner 引用。 If anybody calls take their name and ask them to call again later Swan 提供的例子。 甚至在性別已知或者可以假定的情況下： Under new rules to be announced tomorrow it will be illegal for anyone to donate an organ to their wife Ballantyne Transplant Jury to Vet Live Donors 《星期日泰晤士報》（倫敦）1990 年 3 月 25 日，Garner 引用。 1990 年，妻子可以假定為女性 先行詞為疑問代詞： Who thinks they can solve the problem Huddleston 等人提供的例子， 《劍橋英語語法》（The Cambridge Grammar of the English language）。 用作指代通用名詞先行詞 單數先行詞也可以是一個名詞，例如 person（個人）、patient（病人）或 student（學生）： 先詞先為名詞（例如 person、student 或 patient），泛稱使用（例如表示這個型別中的任意一位成員的含義的時候，或者筆者不知道指定的某一個成員） if the child possesses the nationality or citizenship of another country they may lose this when they get a British passport 來自英國護照申請表，Swan 引用。 cognitive dissonancea concept in psychology that describes the condition in which a persons attitudes conflict with their behaviour《麥克米倫商業管理學詞典》（Macmillan Dictionary of Business and management） 1988 年版， Garner 引用。 A starting point would be to give more support to the company secretary They are or should be privy to the confidential deliberations and secrets of the board and the company Ronald SevernProtecting the Secretary Bird 《金融時報》，1992 年 1 月 6 日，Garner 引用。 先行詞代表前面提及的一類人的泛稱，並且是單數形式 I had to decide Is this person being irrational or is he right Of course they were often rightRobert Burchfield，《美國新聞與世界報道》（US News World Report），1986 年 8 月 11 日，《韋氏簡明英語用法詞典》（MerriamWebsters Concise Dictionary of English Usage）引用 甚至指代的一類人是已知性別的，有時也用 they I swear more when Im talking to a boy because Im not afraid of shocking them 引自一個訪談 No mother should be forced to testify against their child They 也可以用於混合性別的先行詞： Let me know if your father or your mother changes their mind Huddleston 提供的例子。 Either the husband or the wife has perjured themself 這裡 themself 被部分人接受，themselves 似乎不那麼被接受，himself 是不可接受的。Huddleston 等人提供的例子。 甚至對於確定的已知性別的已知的人，they 也可以用於忽略或隱藏性別。 I had a friend in Paris and they had to go to hospital for a month（確定的人，但沒指明身份） themself 一詞有時也被使用： Someone has apparently locked themself in the office接受度值得懷疑 有些人比其他人有更大的被接受度，在某些情況下嘗試用（形態上）單數代詞來替換 they 會得到荒唐的結果，可以用上面的例子驗證。 可接受性和規範性指導 雖然性別通用 he 和性別通用 they 作為單數代詞使用有很長的一段歷史了，並且它們至今都依然還在使用中，但是它們還是一直被部分人群系統化地避免使用。 防止表述偏袒任何一方的風格指引有時建議把這些通用的表達重新表述為複數形式來避免被任何一方指責。 單數 they 的使用在英國英語中比在美國英語中更加被廣泛接受 or vice versa 一性用法指引我們接受被建議 they 的單數用法並不是僅僅是用於語義複數的單數詞例如 everyone，而且也用於前面指代的不確定的 個人，這些用法的例子甚至常出現在正式演講中。例如，Casey Miller 和 Kate Swift，在《無性別歧視寫作手冊》（The Handbook of NonSexist Writing）， Ronald Reagan 引用： You must identify the person who has the power to hire you and show them how your skills can help them with their problems 美國使用指南 Garners Modern American Usage 2003 推薦小心使用單數 they，並且儘可能避免使用，因為這麼用有點彆扭。 如果名詞代詞不一致性可以避免，儘量避免。如果不可以避免，儘可能小心使用，因為有人會懷疑你的文化水平 Garner 認為單數 they 的使用在英國英語中的接受度更大一些： 美國英語使用者比英國英語使用者更不能接受這種變化，美國人覺得不確定的 they 已經是越來越不標準化。 並且美國英語使用者顯然抵制這種變化 它讓許多有文化的美國人望而卻步，這不幸地對問題的最終解決方案造成了障礙。 他將使用單數 they 和 everyone，anyone 和 somebody 等先行詞的趨勢視為不可避免的 儘管這些發展對純粹主義者來說可能令人不安，但它們是不可逆轉的。 語法學家所說的一切都不會改變它們。 In the 14th edition 1993 of The Chicago Manual of Style the University of Chicago Press explicitly recommended use of singular use of they and their noting a revival of this usage and citing its venerable use by such writers as Addison Austen Chesterfield Fielding Ruskin Scott and Shakespeare From the 15th edition this was changed In Chapter 5 of the 16th edition now written by Bryan A Garner the recommendations are The singular they A singular antecedent requires a singular referent pronoun Because he is no longer accepted as a generic pronoun referring to a person of either sex it has become common in speech and in informal writing to substitute the thirdperson plural pronouns they them their and themselves and the nonstandard singular themself While this usage is accepted in casual context it is still considered ungrammatical in formal writing and Gender bias On the one hand it is unacceptable to a great many reasonable readers to use the generic masculine pronoun he in reference to no one in particular On the other hand it is unacceptable to a great many readers often different readers either to resort to nontraditional gimmicks to avoid the generic masculine by using heshe of she for example or to use they as a kind of singular pronoun Either way credibility is lost with some readers According to The American Heritage Book of English Usage many Americans avoid use of they to refer to a singular antecedent out of respect for a traditional grammatical rule despite use of singular they by modern writers of note and mainstream publications Most of the Usage Panel rejects the use of they with singular antecedents as ungrammatical even in informal speech Eightytwo percent find the sentence The typical student in the program takes about six years to complete their course work unacceptable panel members seem to make a distinction between singular nouns such as the typical student and a person and pronouns that are grammatically singular but semantically plural such as anyone everyone and no one Sixtyfour percent of panel members accept the sentence No one is willing to work for those wages anymore are they The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association explicitly reject the use of singular they and gives the following example as incorrect usage Neither the highest scorer nor the lowest scorer in the group had any doubt about their competence while also specifically taking a stand that generic he is unacceptable The APA recommends using he or she recasting the sentence with a plural subject to allow correct use of they or simply rewriting the sentence to avoid issues with gender or number Strunk White the authors of The Elements of Style find use of they with a singular antecedent unacceptable They Not to be used when the antecedent is a distributive expression such as each each one everybody every one many a man Use the singular pronoun A similar fault is the use of the plural pronoun with the antecedent anybody anyone somebody someone The use of he as pronoun for nouns embracing both genders is a simple practical convention rooted in the beginnings of the English language Their assessment in 1979 was He has lost all suggestion of maleness in these circumstances It has no pejorative connotation it is never incorrect Joseph M Williams who wrote a number of books on writing with clarity and grace discusses the advantages and disadvantages of various solutions when faced with the problem of referring to an antecedent such as someone everyone no one or a noun that does not indicate gender and suggests that this will continue to be a problem for some time He suspect s that eventually we will accept the plural they as a correct singular but states that currently formal usage requires a singular pronoun According to The Little Brown Handbook most expertsand some teachers and employersfind use of singular they unacceptable Although some experts accept they them and their with singular indefinite words most do not and many teachers and employers regard the plural as incorrect To be safe work for agreement between singular indefinite words and the pronouns that refer to them It recommends using he or she or avoiding the problem by rewriting the sentence to use a plural or omit the pronoun The Purdue Online Writing Lab OWL maintains that singular they is incorrect Remember the words everybody anybody anyone each neither nobody someone a person etc are singular and take singular pronouns 英國使用指南 In the first edition of A Dictionary of Modern English Usage published in 1926 it is stated that singular they is disapproved of by grammarians and should be avoided in favour of the generic he Examples of its use by eminent writers are given but it is suggested that few good modern writers would flout grammarians so conspicuously as Fielding and Thackeray whose sentences are described as having an oldfashioned sound In the second edition of Fowlers Fowlers Modern English Usage edited by Sir Ernest Gowers and published in 1965 it is stated that singular they is disapproved of by grammarians and while common in colloquial speech should preferably be avoided in favour of the generic he in prose Numerous examples of its use by eminent writers are given but it is still suggested that few good modern writers would flout grammarians so conspicuously as Fielding and Thackeray According to the third edition of Fowlers The New Fowlers Modern English Usage edited by Burchfield and published in 1996 singular they has not only been widely used by good writers for centuries but is now generally accepted except by some conservative grammarians including the Fowler of 1926 who ignored the evidence Over the centuries writers of standing have used they their and them with anaphoric reference to a singular noun or pronoun and the practice has continued in the 20C to the point that traditional grammarians aside such constructions are hardly noticed any more or are not widely felt to lie in a prohibited zone Fowler 1926 disliked the practice and gave a number of unattributed faulty examples The evidence presented in the OED points in another direction altogether The Complete Plain Words was originally written in 1948 by Sir Ernest Gowers a civil servant in an attempt by the British civil service to improve official English A second edition edited by Sir Bruce Fraser was published in 1973 It refers to they or them as the equivalent of a singular pronoun of common sex as common in speech and not unknown in serious writing but stigmatized by grammarians as usage grammatically indefensible The books advice forofficial writerscivil servants is to avoid its use and not to be tempted by itsgreater convenience thoughnecessity may eventually force it into the category of accepted idiom A new edition of Plain Words revised and updated by Sir Ernest Gowers great granddaughter Rebecca Gowers was published in 2014 It notes that singular they and them have become much more widespread since Gowers original comments but still finds it safer to treat a sentence like The reader may toss their book aside as incorrect in formal English while rejecting even more strongly sentences like There must be opportunity for the individual boy or girl to go as far as his keennness and ability will take him The Times Style and Usage Guide first published in 2003 by The Times of London recommends avoiding sentences like If someone loves animals they should protect them by using a plural construction If people love animals they should protect them The Cambridge Guide to English Usage2004 finds singular theyunremarkable For those listening or reading it has become unremarkablean element of common usage It expresses several preferences Genericuniversal their provides a genderfree pronoun avoiding the exclusive his and the clumsy hisher It avoids gratuitous sexism and gives the statement broadest reference They them their are now freely used in agreement with singular indefinite pronouns and determiners those with universal implications such as any one every one no one as well as each and some one whose reference is often more individual The Economist Style Guide refers to the use of they in sentences like We cant afford to squander anyones talents whatever colour their skin is as scrambled syntax that people adopt because they cannot bring themselves to use a singular pronoun The New Harts Rules is aimed at those engaged in copy editing and the emphasis is on the formal elements of presentation including punctuation and typeface rather than on linguistic style butlike The Chicago Manual of Stylemakes occasional forays into matters of usage It advises against use of the purportedly genderneutral he and suggests cautious use of they where he or she presents problems it is now regarded as oldfashioned or sexist to use he in reference to a person of unspecified sex as in every child needs to know that he is loved The alternative he or she is often preferred and in formal contexts probably the best solution but can become tiresome or longwinded when used frequently Use of they in this sense everyone needs to feel that they matter is becoming generally accepted both in speech and in writing especially where it occurs after an indefinite pronoun such as everyone or someone but should not be imposed by an editor if an author has used he or she consistently The 2011 edition of the New International Version Bible uses singular they instead of the traditional he when translating pronouns that apply to both genders in the original Greek or Hebrew This decision was based on research by a commission that studied modern English usage and determined that singular they themtheir was by far the most common way that Englishlanguage speakers and writers today refer back to singular antecedents such as whoever anyone somebody a person no one and the like 澳大利亞使用指南 The Australian Federation Press Style Guide for use in preparation of book manuscripts recommends Genderneutral language should be used stating that use of they and their as singular pronouns is acceptable 英語語法使用指南 According to A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language 1985 The pronoun they is commonly used as a 3rd person singular pronoun that is neutral between masculine and feminine At one time restricted to informal usage it is now increasingly accepted in formal usage especially in American English The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language discusses the prescriptivist argument that they is a plural pronoun and that the use of they with a singular antecedent therefore violates the rule of agreement between antecedent and pronoun but takes the view that they though primarily plural can also be singular in a secondary extended sense comparable to the purportedly extended sense of he to include female gender Use of singular they is stated to be particularly common even stylistically neutral with antecedents such as everyone someone and no one but more restricted when referring to common nouns as antecedents as in The patient should be told at the outset how much they will be required to pay A friend of mine has asked me to go over and help them Use of the pronoun themself is described as being rare and acceptable only to a minority of speakers while use of the morphologically plural themselves is considered problematic when referring to someone rather that everyone since only the latter implies a plural set There are also issues of grammatical acceptability when reflexive pronouns refer to singular noun phrases joined by or the following all being problematic Either the husband or the wife has perjured himself ungrammatical Either the husband or the wife has perjured themselves of questionable grammaticality Either the husband or the wife has perjured themself typically used by only some speakers of Standard English On the motivation for using singular they A Students Introduction to English Grammar states this avoidance of he cant be dismissed just as a matter of political correctness The real problem with using he is that it unquestionably colours the interpretation sometimes inappropriately he doesnt have a genuinely sexneutral sense The alternative he or she can be far too cumbersome as in Everyone agreed that he or she would bring his or her lunch with him or her or even flatly ungrammatical as in Everyones here isnt he or sheAmong younger speakers use of singular they even with definite nounphrase antecedents finds increasing acceptancesidestepping any presumption about the sex of the person referred to as in You should ask your partner what they think The person I was with said they hated the film Example given by Huddleston et al 語法和邏輯分析 Steven Pinker suggests that singular they and plural they can be regarded as a pair of homonyms two words with different meanings but the same spelling and sound However this analysis is not extended to you another originally plural pronoun that has come to have singular use 分佈 Distributive constructions apply a single idea to multiple members of a group They are typically marked in English by words like each every and any The simplest examples are applied to groups of two and use words like either and orWould you like tea or coffee Since distributive constructions apply an idea relevant to each individual in the group rather than to the group as a whole they are most often conceived of as singular and a singular pronoun is used England expects that every man will do his dutyNelson 1806 referring to a fleet crewed by male sailors Every dog hath his day John Ray A Collection of English Proverbs 1670 originally from Plutarch Moralia c 95 AD regarding the death of Euripides However many languages including English show ambivalence in this regard Because distribution also requires a group with more than one member plural forms are sometimes used 引用和非引用照應語 According to the traditional analysis English personal pronouns eg his her their are typically used to refer backward or forward within a sentence to a noun phrase which may be a simple noun This reference is called an anaphoric reference and the referring pronoun is termed an anaphor The socalled singular they is morphologically plural and is accompanied by a plural verb However it is often used in circumstances where an indeterminate antecedent is signified by an indefinite singular antecedent for example The person you mentioned are they coming In some sentences typically those including words like every or any the morphologically singular antecedent does not refer to a single entity but is anaphorically linked to the associated pronoun to indicate a set of pairwise relationships as in the sentence Everyone returned to their seats where each person is associated with one seat One explanation given for the use of they to refer to a singular antecedent is notional agreement when the antecedent is seen as semantically plural as in the Shaw quotation No man goes to battle to be killed But they do get killed MerriamWebsters Concise Dictionary of English Usage In other words in the Shaw quotation no man is syntactically singular demonstrated by taking the singular form goes however it is semantically plural all go to kill not to be killed hence idiomatically requiring they Linguists like Pinker and Huddleston explain sentences like this and others in terms of bound variables a term borrowed from logic Pinker prefers the terms quantifier and bound variable to antecedent and pronoun The word reference is traditionally used in two different senses the relationship between an anaphor eg a pronoun and its antecedent the relationship between a noun phrase and the realworld entity the referen With a morphologically singular antecedent there are a number of possibilities including the following coreferential with a definite antecedent the antecedent and the anaphoric pronoun both refer to the same realworld entity Your wife phoned but she didnt leave a message coreferential with an indefinite antecedent One of your girlfriends phoned but she didnt leave a message One of your boyfriends phoned but he didnt leave a message One of your friends phoned but they didnt leave a message reference to a hypothetical indefinite entity If you had an unemployed daughter what would you think if she wanted to accept work as a pole dancer If you had an unemployed child what would you think if they wanted to accept work as a mercenary or a pole dancer a bound variable pronoun is anaphorically linked to a quantifier no single realworld or hypothetical entity is referenced Nobody knew where they were Every woman present sat with their breasts in full view 認知效率 複數代詞 they 用於指代單數先行詞的用法逐漸增多，一些研究嘗試斷定這種用法會不會讓理解變得更 困難。 此研究之一是，《性別中性搜尋：單數 they 是對性別通用 he 在認識上的一個高效替代嗎？》Foertsch 與 Gernsbacher 著，他們發現 單數 they 是對性別通用 he 或 she 在認識上的一個高效替代，尤其是當先行詞沒有明確所指的時候（例如 anybody 或者 a nurse），而很少用於指代確定的一個人的時候（例如 a runner I knew 或者 my nurse）。單數 they 的語句讀起來 就像包含了先行詞具有常規性別映像對應的有性代詞的語句一樣快（例如護士用 she，卡車司機用 he），並且 比包含了與先行詞常規性別映像的性別相反有性代詞語句更快（例如護士用 he，卡車司機用 she）。 與其它代詞的對比 代詞 they 的單數用法和複數用法可以與代詞 you 作比較。曾經 you 只能作為複數使用，對應的單數形式為 thou。但是在大約 1700 年左右，you 取代了 thou，作為單數形式使用，並且動詞依然使用複數形式。 另見 一致性 性別酷兒 注 參考資料 原例子的源頭 quoted in Reader Digest 1983 as an example of its awkwardness when referring to both sexes 參考書目 NB This is not the English usage authority Henry Watson Fowler 外部連結 Anyone who had a heart would know their own language Geoff Pullum 著，電臺訪談的摘錄 Category 英語語法 Category 非二元性別 Category 語言中的性別 Category 語法數