Another major departure from some traditional analyses of English grammar, and one we feel is in keeping with attempting to view grammar with a communicative end in mind, Is the recognition that grammar is not merely a collection of forms but rather involves the three dimensions of what linguists refer to as (mnrphn) syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. | 306 The Grammar Book one is used to mean the cardinal number however an indefinite pronoun or compound no longer results. In this case there is a two-word sequence with the number one receiving stress. Compare Anyone could have gotten in free. Any one of us could have gotten in free the other two would have had to pay. The Use of Plural Pronouns to Refer to Singular Nouns AU the compound indefinite pronouns prescriptively require singular verbs. Nevertheless the use of a formally plural pronoun such as they them or their to refer back to the following singular compounds is acceptable in informal usage such as i Everyone 1 i his 1 own w things. I Everybody J I their J Based on a conversational analysis she conducted Nesbitt 1980 60 reports that the everyone. . their combination actually occurred far more frequently than the sexist his form and the wordy his or Act-form. Presumably this same preference will carry over to the other indefinite pronouns and will result in their increasing acceptability in combination with plural pronouns Somebody is driving without their lights. Nobody had a good time did they Has anybody brought a watch with them Lagunoff 1992 1997 extends Nesbitt s study beyond indefinite pronouns to include other antecedents as well. In fact she documents the use of singular they in written as well as spoken English from the fifteenth century to the present. She proposes that an antecedent allowing co-reference with singular they must be unspecified in some way . number gender referentiality and that singular they is an unmarked pronoun. Some of the interesting examples she cites follow page numbers cited are from Lagunoff 1992 Someone left their sweatshirt here. p. 6 No one sends their children to public school anymore p. 7 Has anyone lost their pen p. 9 Who ever gets to imagine that they might become an artist p. 12 Every parent mother father thinks their baby is cute. p. 17 10 Lagunoff concludes that teachers can certainly present singular they
