User:Alastair Haines/Singular they

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Singular they is the use of the pronoun they with singular referent in English.

When it is used as a circumlocution to avoid communicating the natural gender of the referent, it is called epicene they.

  • My co-pilot always gives their full attention to the navigation system. — epicene (gender hiding), singular they

Analysis[edit]

Reference[edit]

Speech and writing are linear, one word follows another. So when one word refers to another word, it either refers to a prior word (anaphoric) or anticipates a future word (cataphoric).

  • Mary loved her father. — The pronoun is an anaphoric reference to Mary.
  • His mother loved John very much. — The pronoun is a cataphoric reference to John.

Frequently, words do not refer to other words, but to ideas or entities outside the discourse. Such references are described as exophoric.

  • The reader of this article is intelligent. — The reader refers to a real person, not a word.

The object of an exophoric reference is called the referent of the word. The word is said to denote the object. If reference is anaphoric, the previous word is called the antecedent.

Pronouns[edit]

There are many types of pronoun. The word they is a personal pronoun. Other types of pronoun include: demonstrative pronouns, relative pronouns and interrogative pronouns. An important class of pronouns for understanding usage of they is the distributive pronouns. Some distributive pronouns are: each, either, neither, none, everybody, everyone, anybody, someone, no one. They are called distributive because they can be used to call attention to members of a group, one at a time.[1] English also has many similar, but adjectival, words which can be used to quantify nouns.

  • Somebody noticed that nobody was doing what anybody could have done. — all about individuals within a group
  • I will have none of it. — distributive pronoun
  • Every good boy deserves fruit. — distributive adjective = quantifier

Quantifiers[edit]

Quantifiers are used with either countable or uncountable nouns to describe quantity. They include words like: some, much, many, few, little, a lot, half, three.[2]

  • Many Wikipedia articles use quantifiers to avoid bias, for example some people say.
  • A few good men.
  • More good women.

There are two special quantifiers in logic. Whatever language is used, the human mind often turns to questions involving either the universal quantifier all, or the existential quantifier there exists. These are important when thinking about systems of classification and generalizations.

  • Is it true that, All swans are white. — universal quantification
  • Is it true that, There exists a black swan. — existential quantification

Genre[edit]

Placing things with similar characteristics into classes is a frequent feature of human thinking. Placing words that function as nouns, pronouns, or adjectives into classes is one example. Species of life on Earth are grouped into classes, each called a genus. Literature can be classified into what are called genres, for example: prose, poetry, drama, lyrics. Some languages have classes of nouns that can be called genders. In fact, genre and gender both come from the same Latin word genus. When we talk about members of classes in a general way, this is called generic language. This is an English adjective formed from the French word genre which means, and is related to, the English word kind, in the sense of type. Generic language is language about typical members of a class — generalisations.

Generic pronouns[edit]

Pronouns are used generically when reference to a member or members of a class arises in discourse. Whether generic referents or generic antecedents are understood as singular or plural is often irrelevant to the thought being expressed. This phenomenon is not exclusive to English.[3]

Nelson said the first of these, but all would have been understood, and meant logically the same thing. By choosing every and his, though, Nelson personalized the message in a way that spoke to each man. It may indeed have influenced the way the men felt about their work that day, and even motivated them to more heroic actions.

When the use of English over many centuries is examined, it is apparent that reference to plural objects always uses they and reference to singular objects generally requires a singular pronoun. However, if the reference is to a generic category, involving a distributive pronoun or adjective, English has been ambivalent about refering to it as either singular or plural.

  • "He neuer forsaketh any creature vnlesse they before haue forsaken them selues."

— John Fisher. The Wayes to Perfect Religion. London, 1535, c. 9.

  • Every cow is giving her milk. — generic expressed in singular
  • Every cow is giving its milk. — generic expressed in singular
  • Every cow is giving their milk. — generic expressed in plural
  • Each doctor promised that she would first do no harm. — generic expressed in singular
  • Each nurse is taking his work seriously. — generic expressed in singular
  • Each patient hopes that they will be cured. — generic expressed in plural

Without anyone to say what was right or wrong, the history of English shows that those who use it recognize instinctively, that particularizing reference to generics can be thought of equally well as singular or as plural. Generics do not rightly belong exclusively to either category. One can select whichever best suits other factors in the discourse. All things being equal, however, there is a distinct preference for the clarity of the singular, a preference that is still felt in contemporary English.

An interesting extention of this pattern is the case of indefinite singular generics; that is, members of a class refered to in the singular, but qualified by the indefinite article.

  • A nurse relies on his training. — generic expressed in singular
  • A nurse relies on their training. — generic expressed in plural
  • A judge must earn her respect. — generic expressed in singular
  • A judge must earn their respect. — generic expressed in plural

It is clear that the use of they in these cases is generic. The possessive adjective qualifies a substantive related to an exophoric generic referent — the respect due to judges, the training of nurses. The question is, are these uses singular? Instead of functioning anaphorically, perhaps it works as an exphoric reference to the generic class implied by the context. In other words they may denote all members of the class, rather than the indefinite antecedent.

History[edit]

The anaphoric use of they for generic antecedents has a long history in English.

  • 1535: "He neuer forsaketh any creature vnlesse they before haue forsaken them selues."

— John Fisher. The Wayes to Perfect Religion. London, c. 9.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ William Malone Baskervill and James Witt Sewell, An English Grammar, 1896.
  2. ^ http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary/quantifier.html
  3. ^ AG Laird, 'ως έκαστοι in Thucydides', The American Journal of Philology, 27 (1906): 33-45.

External links[edit]

[[Category:Gender-neutral pronouns]] [[Category:Modern English personal pronouns]] [[Category:Linguistics]]

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