On the Ted radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is the history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Terry Gross.
As a heads up to our listeners, the introduction I'm about to give describes a sexual assault.
My guest is Christine Blasey Ford.
She testified at Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing that he sexually assaulted her.
I am here today not because I want to be.
I am terrified.
I am here because I believe it is my civic duty to tell you what happened to me while Brett Kavanaugh and I were in high school.
In Blousey Ford's testimony, she accused him of being drunk at a party when she was 15 and he was 17, and they each attended separate prep schools in the Washington Beltway.
She said that hed pushed her into a bedroom, climbed on top of her, pinned her down and tried to take off her clothes.
She said she believed he was going to rape her.
To keep her quiet, he put his hand over her mouth, making it so hard to breathe.
She was afraid hed accidentally suffocate and kill her.
When she said at the confirmation hearing that testifying terrified her.
She had reason to be terrified.
Did death threats against her and her children forced her and her family to hide out in hotels and other places?