---
title: Singular "they" for one person whose gender is unknown has been used… — Pronouns: I, me, you, they and who · tree and pragmatics
description: Singular "they" for one person whose gender is unknown has been used since the 1300s; some people today also use it as their own pronoun, and major dictionaries accept both uses. Who acts: gender, people, major dictionaries. A sentence of the lesson «Pronouns: I, me, you, they and who» of the langua
---

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# Pronouns: I, me, you, they and who, sentence 16

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Singular "they" for one person whose gender is unknown has been used since the 1300s; some people today also use it as their own pronoun, and major dictionaries accept both uses.

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**Who acts:** gender, people, major dictionaries · **What happens:** be, use, accept · **To what, where:** speakers, gender, uses

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson «Pronouns: I, me, you, they and who» of the language course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (gender, people, major dictionaries), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:language:005-pronouns-i-me-you-they-and-who.lesson:16
# text = Singular "they" for one person whose gender is unknown has been used since the 1300s; some people today also use it as their own pronoun, and major dictionaries accept both uses.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = language
# lesson = 005-pronouns-i-me-you-they-and-who.lesson
# annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R8-pos-agree ×1
1	Singular	singular	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
2	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	3	punct	_	_
3	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	14	nsubj:pass	_	_
4	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	one	one	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	person	person	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nmod	_	_
8	whose	whose	PRON	WP$	Poss=Yes|PronType=Rel	9	nmod:poss	_	_
9	gender	gender	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
10	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	unknown	unknown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	acl:relcl	_	_
12	has	have	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	aux	_	_
13	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	14	aux:pass	_	_
14	used	use	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
15	since	since	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
16	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
17	1300s	1300	NOUN	NNS	Number=Ptan|NumForm=Combi|NumType=Card	14	obl	_	_
18	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	23	punct	_	_
19	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	20	det	_	_
20	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	23	nsubj	_	_
21	today	today	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	obl:unmarked	_	_
22	also	also	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
23	use	use	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	14	parataxis	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=14:parataxis|HaikuPos=VERB:VB:VerbForm=Inf
24	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	obj	_	_
25	as	as	ADP	IN	_	28	case	_	_
26	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	28	nmod:poss	_	_
27	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	28	amod	_	_
28	pronoun	pronoun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	obl	_	_
29	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
30	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
31	major	major	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	32	amod	_	_
32	dictionaries	dictionary	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	nsubj	_	_
33	accept	accept	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	23	conj	_	_
34	both	both	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	35	det	_	_
35	uses	use	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	33	obj	_	_
36	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	14	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: assert
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | present | gender |  |  |  |  | unknown *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **use** | present · perfect · passive |  | speakers *= speaker* |  |  | since the 1300s |  | vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |
| 3 | **use** | present | some people | gender |  |  |  | as speakers's own pronoun | vn spend\_time-104 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent it=Duration as pronoun=Attribute |
| 4 | **accept** | present | major dictionaries | both uses |  |  |  |  | vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent use=Theme |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:language:005-pronouns-i-me-you-they-and-who.lesson:16`.

**The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R8-pos-agree ×1. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence.

See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/).

<!-- /div -->

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