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Mind your language

The new Fowler still won’t grasp the nettle on ‘they’

A usage problem where the answer is inevitable – but no one seems quite ready to accept it

4 April 2015

8:00 AM

4 April 2015

8:00 AM

I’ve been having a lovely time splashing about in the new Fowler. It has been revised by Jeremy Butterfield, an OUP lexicographer. There’s a new usage in it that I want to talk about, but first a word about the title. The title page says Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage.

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