From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Andrew Cagney To: Andrew Cagney Cc: Eli Zaretskii , gdb-patches@sources.redhat.com Subject: Re: [rfc/rfa:doc] INTEGER_TO_ADDRESS; Was: INTEGER_TO_ADDRESS(), thoughts? Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 14:59:00 -0000 Message-id: <3BC4C49D.2010407@cygnus.com> References: <3BA7F150.9060302@cygnus.com> <3BB0F62D.1080702@cygnus.com> <3BB8CA42.8030209@cygnus.com> <7458-Tue02Oct2001091222+0300-eliz@is.elta.co.il> <3BBB751B.70601@cygnus.com> <3405-Thu04Oct2001081034+0300-eliz@is.elta.co.il> <3BBCD726.3000704@cygnus.com> X-SW-Source: 2001-10/msg00122.html > > Here "When the user copies" is single, but the rest of the sentence > says "their source", "pass it", and "they should get", which are all > plural. To my ear this sounds wrong, but that's just me. > > It is likely gender neutral australian. I'm going to do some digging. Checking http://www.dict.mq.edu.au/ and searching for ``their'' and ``they'' I've found: their determiner 1. the possessive form of they. 2. (used with singular force in informal contexts, and increasingly in formal contexts, in place of a gender-specific form when the sex of the antecedent is not determined): who has left their pen on my desk? [Middle English, from Scandinavian] Usage: See note at they. they pronoun (personal) third person, plural, subjective (them) 1. plural of he, she, and it. 2. people in general: they say he is rich. 3. (used with singular force in informal contexts, and increasingly in formal contexts, in place of a gender-specific form where the sex of the antecedent is not determined): if anybody cheats they will be disqualified. [Middle English; from Scandinavian] Usage: The use of they, them, and their as non-gender-specific singulars (as in a doctor and their patients) has always had currency in spoken English and is now increasingly accepted in written English. This use of they gives rise to the form themself for the reflexive pronoun by analogy with myself, himself, etc. enjoy, Andrew