To the Editor: Re “In Praise of New Pronouns,” by John McWhorter (Opinion, Sept. 24): Mr. McWhorter is certainly correct that language is constantly evolving and none of us can fix it in place.
But in his several examples, he demonstrates that language evolves to become clearer and more precise, not to confuse and obscure.
The problem with using “they” to refer to a single person is that it makes the sentence incomprehensible. Each time it pops up I find myself backtracking to find out who these other people are in the sentence.
Inserting unclarity into writing for political purposes is not watching a language evolve naturally; it is sacrificing communication to someone’s worldview.