时代周刊:“他们”一词的新用法

How they Won

“他们”一词是如何胜出的？

It is a well-known truth among linguists¹ that the grammatical “mistakes” of one era

在语言学家中间，有一个众所周知的事实：在一个时代被认为是语法“错误”的用法

often have a way of being proved perfectly² correct by the next.

到了下一个时代常常会被证明是完全正确的用法。

In a new book, linguistics³ scholar Dennis Baron⁴ argues that

专攻语言学的学者丹尼斯·巴伦就在他的新作中指出，

the tide has turned for the most controversial pronoun around: the singular they.

最具争议的代词——单数形式的“他/她/它们”已经时来运转了。

For centuries, pundits⁵ have observed that English is missing a gender⁶- neutral, third-person pronoun

几百年来，专家们注意到，英语中缺少一个在不知道性别

that could be used in place of he or she when gender is unknown or irrelevant⁷.

或不涉及性别的情况下指代第三人称的他或她时使用的无关性别的三人称代词。

People have tried to fill this gap with many words that didn’t fit,

人们尝试过很多次用其他词来填补这一空白，

like generic⁸ he, which isn’t actually generic,

比如表泛指的“他”，事实上也算不上泛指，

and hundreds of made-up pronouns like thon (a combination of that and one) that never took off.

还有一个又一个新造的代词，比如从未流行起来的“那一个”（“那个”和“一个”的组合），结果均为奏效。

The answer, Baron explains in What’s Your Pronoun?: Beyond He & She, has always been the singular they.

巴伦在（新作）《他她之外，你用什么代词？》一书中指出，答案一直都在那里，它就是单数形式的“他们”。

Though grammarians may insist that it be used only as a plural⁹,

尽管语法学家可能会坚持认为，“他们”只能作复数代词使用，

the masses regularly use it in a singular way, as in “Did they leave a message?”

但民众经常都在将其用作单数，如“他们留什么话了没有？”

In recent years, it’s gained ground, thanks to the LGBTQ community,

近年来，因为LGBTQ群体的推动，这一用法已经普及开来，

which has embraced it as a way to refer to non binary¹⁰ people who identify as neither men nor women.

该群体将其用作了指代认为自己非男亦非女的非二元性别人群的一种方式。

And that helped inspire influential¹¹ authorities like copy editors to put down their red pens.

他们的这一做法鼓舞了文案编辑等有一定影响力的权威机构，使他们放下自己手中的红笔。

1 linguists   

n.通晓数国语言的人( linguist的名词复数 )；语言学家

参考例句：

• The linguists went to study tribal languages in the field. 语言学家们去实地研究部落语言了。 来自辞典例句
• The linguists' main interest has been to analyze and describe languages. 语言学家的主要兴趣一直在于分析并描述语言。 来自辞典例句

2 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

3 linguistics   

n.语言学

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• Linguistics is a scientific study of the property of language.语言学是指对语言的性质所作的系统研究。

4 baron   

n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王

参考例句：

• Henry Ford was an automobile baron.亨利·福特是一位汽车业巨头。
• The baron lived in a strong castle.男爵住在一座坚固的城堡中。

5 pundits   

n.某一学科的权威，专家( pundit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The pundits disagree on the best way of dealing with the problem. 如何妥善处理这一问题，专家众说纷纭。 来自辞典例句
• That did not stop Chinese pundits from making a fuss over it. 这并没有阻止中国的博学之士对此大惊小怪。 来自互联网

6 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

7 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

8 generic   

adj.一般的，普通的，共有的

参考例句：

• I usually buy generic clothes instead of name brands.我通常买普通的衣服，不买名牌。
• The generic woman appears to have an extraordinary faculty for swallowing the individual.一般妇女在婚后似乎有特别突出的抑制个性的能力。

9 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。

10 binary   

adj.二，双；二进制的；n.双(体)；联星

参考例句：

• Computers operate using binary numbers.计算机运行运用二进位制。
• Let us try converting the number itself to binary.我们试一试，把这个数本身变成二进制数。

11 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。