• infuziSporg [e/em/eir]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    “Them is not singular”, and not “Them are not singular”?

    Which makes more sense, “the yolk of the egg are white” or “the yolk of the egg is white”?

    • Philosoraptor [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      10 months ago

      They’re not even good at being pedantic. It should be ‘"them’ is not singular," with single quotes around ‘them.’ The sentence means to refer to the word itself, not the concept the word points to: Paris is a city in France, but ‘Paris’ has five letters. Philosophers call it the use/mention distinction; getting it right eliminates a lot of confusion when you’re switching between talking about words and talking about concepts.