am i the only one seeing this tongue-in-cheek thing?
This is incorrect. We are talking about government services. Language needs to be precise. There are cases where there is a difference between an individual, a couple, and a group of 3 or more. There is also a very tricky case for non-native speakers and those that are not aware of the culture from which these nuances arise.
The guidance must direct the implementors to use specific language. If confronting a situation in which a pronoun gives rise to ambiguity, do not use a pronoun. So, "if your service allows people to jointly apply for something," define it. Is it "your service allows two people to jointly apply," or "your service allows a group of people to apply," or something else? Using "they" is inappropriate. Something like "you and the other individual" is appropriate.
"Does the other person" is correct, accurately describes the scenario, and is comprehensible at essential English reading levels, which is incredibly important.
> Is “they” singular or plural? The answer is both. As of 2019, most big style guides—including the Associated Press, the Chicago Manual of Style, the MLA style manual, and the APA style manual—accept the usage of the singular they. [0]
Somewhat tangentially, we're talking about UK services, and you're citing American style guides. The major British style guides advise against singular "they."
Since we're talking about usability and accessibility, I'm going hammer on the point that this needs to be accessible at baseline reading comprehension levels. Singular "they" is generally not taught either in primary or ESL environments. If it does become part of standard education, we still have generations of people who have not experienced it.
"With an antecedent referring to an individual generically or indefinitely (e.g. someone, a person, the student), used esp. so as to make a general reference to such an individual without specifying gender"[0]
"Often used in reference to a singular noun made universal by every, any, no, etc., or applicable to one of either sex (= ‘he or she’)."[1]
[0] - https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/200700 - current OED entry
[1] - https://www.oed.com/oed2/00251026 - 2nd edition OED entry from 1989
There is an exception for "themselves" - there is some usage of the word "themself" ("they did that themself") but it's fairly uncommon, and most people seem to stick to "themselves" even for a single individual.
It's worth noting that grammar isn't always so concerned with the logic of a situation. For example, German has grammatical gender that, for people at least, matches the gender of the person in question - a male nurse uses masculine articles, a female nurse uses feminine ones. However, a girl (Mädchen) is addressed using neutral articles because the linguistic rule ("-chen" is neuter) overrides the logical rule (female people use female articles).
Finally, it's worth pointing out that, even from a prescriptive perspective, most bodies encourage (or at least allow) the use of the singular they (with plural verb forms).
This is the problem. I'd like to remind everyone that the context is the usability of a government services website.
> This should be pretty intuitive to most native English speakers
How about non-native speakers?
> most bodies encourage (or at least allow) the use of the singular they
The British style guides advise against it.
I'd ask everyone, rather than repeatedly reminding me that in casual speech we can use different constructions, what is the benefit of using this particular construction in a formal context wherein comprehension is paramount?
It also fits in with their style guide, which talks about writing in a conversational style, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/content-design/writing-for-gov-u...
Yes, their style guide says to use singular "they," and that's what I'm criticizing. Aside from this particular carve-out, it doesn't really align with their style guide, which offers this advise:
* "To keep content understandable, concise and relevant, it should be incisive (friendliness can lead to a lack of precision and unnecessary words)"
* "You should not let caveats dictate unwieldy grammar"
It's perplexing that so many are insisting on creating a problem. There is a perfect solution that affords gender neutrality and incisive language. Why not use it?
So I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that British style guides do not support this construction.
I don't think there's a particular benefit to using it, other than that it is a very common and suddenly understood form of English, and in many cases easier to understand than an equivalent, but more complex construction. You talk about using it in a formal context, which to a certain extent this is, but more than that it is important for Government websites to be widely understood - if the Government adopts a register that is too far removed from common English, then they will not be as easily understood. Given that there is no apparent confusion with singular they in conventional speech (and given that, in cases where it is ambiguous, it is possible to find alternative sentence constructions), it seems pointless not to use it.
He/she/it does
I/you/they do