Comments on: No one can check their grammar on billboards

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:59:28 +0000

I watched Apocalypto last night for the first time and noticed that tagline on the DVD cover – and noticed it straight away!

Living in the UK though – everybody uses “their” and “them” as singular – I’ve just learned to suck it up and get over it. At least the tagline wasn’t “You cannot outrun you’re destiny”.

By: Galen

Galen — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:26:18 +0000

it’s = possessive – its = it is

sorrrrry

By: Galen

Galen — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:25:14 +0000

I think Mel’s people are saying “no one” as a stand in for “those who believe in individualism,” and “their destiny” to point towards herd mentality, collectivism, etc… i’ve watched some trailers of the movie and looking at that next to his work on the passion of the christ, it’s safe to say this is about a moral individual’s existential crisis in mayan society. I’m not really sure where this sort of thinking gets us, but I think it is where phrases like the tagline “No one can outrun their destiny.”

By: lussigagas

lussigagas — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 09:01:54 +0000

300 is a great movie full of visual effects and graphics which made it different and much better.
Acting was great, director did a wonderful job and chose great actors, full of action, and it is based on a true story.

By: Who may be on third, but Whom’s getting ejected from the game… : Notes from a Linguistic Mystic

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 02:21:53 +0000

[...] past, but also the future. I made a few predictions about language change in English a while back in this post, and one of those predictions has just come to life again for me. In that post, I said… [...]

By: The Seventh Seal has been opened, and soon, an army of “theirs” will be released to walk the Earth : Notes from a Linguistic Mystic

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 03:22:14 +0000

[...] Not long ago, I discussed the increasing usage of “their” as a gender neutral English pronoun, as in “every student was on the edge of their seats during lecture.” I’d highly recommend you go back and read the original post if you haven’t, it really explains the issue more thoroughly. [...]

By: So two professors walk into a bar… : Notes from a Linguistic Mystic

So two professors walk into a bar… : Notes from a Linguistic Mystic — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 00:40:44 +0000

[...] I’ve touched on the difference between descriptivism and prescriptivism a few times before (here, here and here), but I think it’s time for a formal discussion of the differences. [...]

By: Osman

Osman — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 09:52:12 +0000

very nice post. I was confused when i saw this sentence: The person below me visits their relatives each week. As a non-native speaker, i thought ‘maybe, it is possible’, but i was really surprised. How come to use ‘their’ for ‘tpbm’? But i later i have started to use it myself. It is a very good post and agree with you.

I heard this for the first time by the way, who says this?
“a grammarian trying to stop language change is like a gardener trying to stop continental drift”.