Singular ‘they’

I get phone calls. This one was from a woman who was writing a book and needed some free editing advice. She probably thought: I need someone who knows about language. Maybe I should ask a linguist! And usually that would be a good idea, especially since linguists are generally knowledgeable people of sound understanding, and good to talk to. Unless it’s about a prescriptive grammar question, which makes us feel cranky.

Here’s the question: is this sentence okay?

The beginner in tatting can use this book to improve their technique.

My first thought was: Cheese it, lady, I’m a linguist, not an editor. You need the bowtie people over in English. We describe, not prescribe.

But I didn’t say that. I just explained that there are three schools of thought on the matter:

1) Some people don’t like that sentence because ‘beginner’ is singular and ‘their’ is plural. Shun those people.

2) Some people think the sentence is fine because it sounds fine. Or at least, it sounds better or less cumbersome than the alternatives of ‘he or she’ and so on. English doesn’t really have a good solution yet. This is why I’d like to fast-forward two hundred years to see what people finally decided to do. 3D real-time Google Maps walkthroughs? Feh. Just let me hear some English!

3) “Why don’t you just avoid the whole problem and rewrite the sentence?” I asked. Like this:

Beginners in tatting can use this book to improve their technique.

“Oh, I don’t want to rewrite anything,” she said. “It’s at the printer’s. But I was worried that someone would say it was wrong.”

After a moment, I said “If anyone gives you any flack about it, just tell them a linguist said it was okay.”

“Oh, thank you!” she said. She was happy, and I’d done my pro bono for the day.

Oh, and tatting is what you do when you make lace. There — that’s two.