Problems or inconsistencies with English: “But Shakespeare is not assumed to have been in his cups when he wrote in The Comedy of Errors, ‘There’s not a man I meet but doth salute me / As I were their well-acquainted friend’ (Act IV, Scene 111). Later, Thackeray in Vanity Fair tosses off ‘A person can’t help their birth.’ …”
Because the rest of us think it’s proper English to say, “One should take his opinion outside,” one and his being singular. In the above examples, Shakespeare says, “a man I meet . . . as I were their friend.”
I’m right to complain, aren’t I?
If someone is kind enough to use “man” as a collective noun, I’m willing to be pretty forgiving about his (their) choice of pronouns.
I was taught, in a college course on the History & Analysis of the English Language, that many of the current rules of good English weren’t standardized until 18th Century grammarians imposed them, taking Latin as a guide to what English grammar ought to be. Therefore, there would be a certain amount of anachronism involved in judging Shakespeare according to the recent standard.
Good point, Michael. So we could ask if McWhorter is arguing that English rules are mostly pointless. He may not be, because we only have an excerpt from his book. He may point out all of the ugly problems we have in English and wrap up with the fact that our language is pretty good overall, so let’s just chuckle at a few things and let them go.