(UFU - 2020 - 1ª FASE) On Tuesday, Merriam-Webster selected its word of the year, not some viral neologism like post-truth or selfie but a word that has been around since the Middle Ages: the pronoun they.
Pronouns are tools that people typically use with all the thought one gives to using doorknobs. Students are taught in early language lessons that every sentence needs a subject and are given a short list of usual suspects: words like he, she, you and they. The latter, they are told, is used to refer to more than one person. Yet that’s not always the case. Merriam-Webster chose the singular form, one that has been gaining currency and causing controversy.
There are two reasons that singular they is on the upswing. One is that it’s a convenient way to refer to an unknown person in a gender-neutral way, versus using cumbersome constructions like “he or she.” In recent years, it has been far easier to find this generic they in mass media because using it makes life easier for readers and writers alike.
Katy Steinmetz Disponível em: <https://time.com/>. Acesso em: 08 fev. 2020.
Com base no texto acima, é INCORRETO afirmar que
“they” foi considerada a palavra do ano por um dicionário de inglês.
o uso do pronome “they” se mantém inalterado em inglês.
“he” e “she” podem ser substituídos por “they” em certos contextos.
“they” é usado como estratégia para neutralizar o gênero em inglês.
Gabarito:
o uso do pronome “they” se mantém inalterado em inglês.