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28 August 2007

Is Michael Vick a Thing or a Person? Is He More Than One Person?

Tom Jackson on ESPN opining on Michael Vick's four minute apology for six years of involvement in illegal dog fighting and questioning his contriteness:

"Am I looking at someone that has learned their lesson?"

Two problems here, the first is that Vick, is if fact a person. Instead of the relative pronoun "that" reserved for referring to animals and things, Jackson should have used the personal pronoun "who."

The second problem stems from using "their," third person plural. The case is correct, "their" is possessive (genitive). But Mr. Vick is one person, even while at times appearing to his opponents on the gridiron as two or three. Therefore: We are looking at someone who has learned his lesson. At least grammatically speaking.

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