I should let this go, but Sunday is still Friday in the mind. Number agreement is based on subject - predicate. That is, subject (noun, pronoun) should be consistent with its associated verb. Whether a pronoun and its associated noun in a different clause may vary by dialect or usage.
A person who uses that construct should know that they are destined for Bonehead English person --> uses (agreement) they --> are (agreement per US English) The fact that 'they' stands in for 'person' is the whole point of this thread. You may buy into that correlation or not, but in the example sentence, there is still number agreement within each clause. At least in US English. . . . J.O.Skip Robinson Southern California Edison Company Electric Dragon Team Paddler SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager 626-302-7535 Office 323-715-0595 Mobile jo.skip.robin...@sce.com -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin Sent: Friday, June 12, 2015 3:11 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: OT STCK question On 2015-06-12 15:57, J O Skip Robinson wrote: > I suggest that anyone matriculating at a US university not try to get away > with 'they is' on a placement exam. (S)he will find theirself in Bonehead > English. > And yet, "A person who uses that construct should know that they are destined for Bonehead English" grates equally. "Person ... are"!? Where did the singular slip to plural? -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
