Friday, November 18, 2016

genderless pronouns - Can you refer to somebody using "they"?


In "The Troubles" of U2, there is this :



Somebody stepped inside your soul
Somebody stepped inside your soul
Little by little they robbed and stole
Till someone else was in control



What I don't understand is why are we using "they" here ? Is this referring to the person that "stepped inside the soul" or is it about other people ?
If it is referring to somebody, what are the rules that enables us to use they while it's one specific person that stepped inside the soul, and not multiple people ?




Answer



They here can mean "he", "she", or "anyone else". It is a general word for any of those. OxfordDictionaries defines they in this sense as "Used to refer to a person of unspecified sex", and they also give the definition "People in general".


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