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.
With me is Dave Davies, who you know is a longtime interviewer on Fresh Air.
He's here as my guest.
He's the interviewee.
Here's why.
Dave has been an indispensable member of our team for many years.
The last few months have been a period of transition for Dave, having fulfilled his wish to cut back from a couple of interviews a week on our show to doing occasional interviews, we're grateful to still have him on the show, even if it is only occasional.
Before the year ends, we want to pay tribute to him and ask him to share some stories from his broadcasting and newspaper career.
Ive known Dave since 1983 when he joined whys newsroom covering city politics.
From there, he moved to the commercial all news Philly radio station and then to the newspaper world, covering city and state politics and government for the Philadelphia Daily News, where he worked for 20 years and became one of Phillys preeminent city news reporters.
In 2010, he returned to why full time, splitting his position between the news department and fresh air.
But he'd started doing interviews on our show back in 2001, even before his official return to radio.
Dave has also been my savior.
When I got a bad cold and lost my voice, when a family member was sick and needed my help, when I needed a vacation, Dave was there to guest host.
When I or anyone on the show needs advice about an especially perplexing question relating to journalistic ethics, hes our go to guy.