Jordan Peterson on language: what the evidence says · JRE #877
SUBJECT: LANGUAGE
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
they is used to repair awkward sentences basically, but it's never been used despite the claims of the of the gender bender activists. It's never been used for the singular
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Peterson claimed singular "they" has never been used in English and is a recent invention of gender-identity activism. Reference sources document that "they" has been used with a singular, generic antecedent since at least the late 1300s (found in Chaucer), and continued in the works of Shakespeare and Jane Austen, among others, generally to refer to a person of unknown or unspecified gender rather than a specific known individual. This older, well-attested "generic" singular they is distinct from its newer extension to a specific person who identifies as nonbinary, though both draw on the same centuries-old grammatical construction. The claim that singular they "has never been used" is contradicted by this documented historical record.