Apocalypto!

[elfs]

No one can outrun their destiny.

Look, Mel. I can probably forgive the anti-semitic bullshit. I can understand that everyone carries a little-- or a lot-- of hypocritical bigotry inside them for one group or another, and it is the hypocrisy of keeping it inside all the time while living up to the higher standards of public discourse that make civilization clank along in its ungainly fashion like Frankenstein's Monster.

But get your freaking tagline's grammar right! Okay? "No one can outrun his destiny." Got it? Repeat after me. "No one can outrun his destiny." Singular referent, singular reference. Make sure you get it right before you put it on posters going up in every theater across the planet! Otherwise people really will start to think you really are a bloody idiot.

I'm just sayin'.

Comments

Singular 'they'

[(Anonymous)]

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002536.html

The singular 'they' isn't necessarily bad grammar. For whatever reason, when I read that tagline, it does not make me cringe. Of course I don't write nearly as much or as often as you do.

Re: Singular 'they'

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

"They" has been used as a singular pronoun for a long time and its use is only becoming more common. It's definitely a part of vernacular American English and probably other varieties of English as well.

The use of "it" in English is rather odd. It's a singular neuter pronoun, but we don't use it in gender-free contexts where the referents are human - or really, when they are sentient, as I haven't seen it used to refer to non-human intelligences except when their alienness or lack of gender is being emphasized.

I would rather see some word other than "they" used for a singular gender-free pronoun in English, but it's what we've got. It's what the general English-speaking populace understands.

Re: Singular 'they'

[solarbird]

Chaucer did it! If it's good enough for the Canterbury Tales, it's good enough for me.

Re: Singular 'they'

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Well, bleah. Okay, you guys win. I still think that tagline is jarring and would be better worded with the first person singular, using the obviously male figure in the poster as the appropriate referent.

Re: Singular 'they'

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

And that's why the tagl;ine is jarring. Unless there's something else in the film, some other characters outrunning destiny, it's a misapplication of the pronoun, because it is about a male.

Of course, they could have put it as "You can't outrun your destiny".

Re: Singular 'they'

[solarbird]

Except then you have a clash of specificity in a way that bothers me. "No one" could be any person, "him" - particularly "him" tied to this one specific guy you're looking at - is a specific person. I know you mean it in the "no one, not even this guy, can escape his destiny" sense, but... no sir, I don't like it.

[vik_thor]

»points up« What they said.

I use the singular they quite a bit. Not saying that makes it correct, just that its use is quite common.
(and this should not be construed as an endorsement of Mr. Mel...)

[(Anonymous)]

I find myself using it in preference to non-gender-neutral pronouns a lot of the time. I'm more likely to say 'I just talked to them, and they said it was alright' than 'I just talked to him, and he said it was alright'.

[j5nn5r.livejournal.com]

How would *you* write that gender neutral?

I'm really curious.

The only solution I can think of is "they". Yes I know abut singular referent, singular reference.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

No one can outrun Destiny!

[mo-hair.livejournal.com]

my crazy socialist friends have adopted "co" as their gender neutral pronoun. it makes me crazy.

i personally use the incorrect "they" because i get tongue tied manipulating the language in an effort to avoid it.

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

No better or worse than 'hir' I suppose - by which I mean either one makes my skin crawl.

[norikos-author.livejournal.com]

Singular 'they' dates back to at least the 1200s. Sorry, Elf, but you're wrong on this one.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I'd capitalize Destinty and omit any possessive.

"No one can outrun Destiny."

Or is that just pretentious?

Gordan Sumner

[pendorbound.livejournal.com]

Yeah, yeah, but Sting was an English teach (an English English teacher at that), and it was still, "If you love someone, set them free."

I feel your pain, though. It makes me cringe every time I hear it. But I give up. This grammar-nazi's letting this one slide from now on.

[(Anonymous)]

First if you capitalise destiny it makes it sound like a name, "noone can outrun Destiny" could mean there's some girl called Destiny pursuing you.

While "they" does seem a bit odd when you think about it all these rules don't affect evolution. Language evolution is based on its use not the written rules, otherwise we'd need huge committees to decide on how to change things and be sueing dictionary publishers for false advertising when they make mistakes. "You said it was an English dictionary, it doesn't conform to English grammar therefore it must not be English."

oh the irony

[(Anonymous)]

"I can understand that everyone carries a little-- or a lot-- of hypocritical bigotry inside them for one group or another ... "

Well, the indefinite pronoun 'everyone' is singular, and later in the sentence you used the word 'them,' which is plural. Who's a hypocrite now?

There are two further errors in that sentence. I'll let you find them :)