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Grammatical analysis
Pronouns
Pronouns are prototypically words that replace determiner phrases (in other analyses, noun phrases). They exist in most (but not all) languages. The person, thing, phrase, clause or idea they replace is called the antecedent (sometimes referent).
- The sun and the moon influence life on Earth. They…
Here they is a pronoun; the determiner phrase the sun and the moon is its antecedent. Speakers find pronouns useful when the antecedent is obvious to the hearer from the context.
Personal pronouns
English has many different kinds of pronouns. The most common pronouns in English are the personal pronouns.
- Personal pronouns: I, you, she, he, it, we, they
These are so common because nearly all verbs require an explicit subject in English. The range of different pronouns helps make it clear to the hearer exactly what the antecedent is.
- Example: The sun and the moon influence life on Earth. It…
Choosing the pronoun it rather than they (above) signals that the sun and the moon are not the antecedent in this case.
Number
I, she, he and it refer to only one person or thing [meaning in usage] and are called singular [label in grammar]; we refers to more than one person and is called plural. Sometimes you is singular, other times it is plural. This article is about the meaning in various usages of they. The description of a pronoun as either singular or plural is called its grammatical number.
Person
Personal pronouns in many languages can also be described according to whether they refer to the speaker (first person), the listener (second person) or to a third person or thing. I and we are first-person personal pronouns, you is the second-person personal pronoun, and she, he, it and they are all third-person personal pronouns. The description of a pronoun as first, second or third person is called its grammatical person. They is a third-person, personal pronoun.
Case
English allows speakers to communicate to the hearer even more information than simply the person (1st, 2nd or 3rd) of an antecedent and the number (singular or plural).
- Oblique personal pronouns: me, mine, yours, her, hers, him, his, its, us, ours, them, theirs
When the antecedent is not the subject of a sentence, its alternative function [meaning in usage] is marked by a change of pronoun. This is called a change of grammatical case [label in grammar]. Essentially, English has two cases other than the subject case – the object case and the possessive case. Cases other than the subject case are called oblique cases.
- Example: You gave me that book of hers.
You is subject case, me is object case, and hers is possessive case. Therefore, when we think about how they is used in English, we also need to consider them and theirs.
Gender
English, like most languages, does not have distinct forms to communicate the gender of first and second persons. The genders of speaker and hearer are normally obvious, unambiguous or irrelevant when they are communicating. However, gender distinctions in the third person can be very helpful.
- Example: My sister and brother disagree. She likes cars, but he does not.
In contrast to the singular, English does not provide options in third-person, personal pronouns to distinguish gender in the plural.
- Example: My sisters and brothers disagree. The sisters like cars, but the brothers do not.
The following could be used to negate the need for gender distinction, but subsequently leads to the use of a subordinate clause.
- Example: My sisters and brothers disagree; the former like cars, but the latter do not.
This example is, however, rather clumsy and dated, and would scarcely be used in spoken or written English.
Summary
| Singular | Plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subject | Object | Reflexive | Subject | Object | Reflexive | ||
| First | I | me | myself | we | us | ourselves | |
| Second | you | you | yourself | you | you | yourselves | |
| Third | Masculine | he | him | himself | they | them | themselves |
| Feminine | she | her | herself | ||||
| Neuter | it | it | itself | ||||
Practical issue
The issue addressed by this article is based on a contrast in English – the awkwardness of making gender distinctions in the plural and the awkwardness of avoiding them in the singular. Speakers of languages use words both to make distinctions, but also to generalize.[3]
- Example of distinction: My mother thinks…, but my father says….
- Example of generalization: My parents believe….
What has become controversial among users of English can be seen from the following examples.
All people get hungry, so they eat. Acceptable (All people is plural.)
All people get hungry, so she eats. Incorrect (different meaning than first sentence)
Each one gets thirsty, so he drinks. Disputed (Is he generic, or are all members of the group male?)- Each one gets thirsty, so they drink. Disputed (Used by Shakespeare, condemned by The Elements of Style.)
- Each one gets thirsty, so he or she drinks. Awkward (especially if used repeatedly)
- When a person is tired, she sleeps. Disputed (Is she specific or generic?)
- When a person is tired, it sleeps. Incorrect (Pronouns for objects cannot be used to describe people.)
English guidelines before the 1980s supported the use of he as a singular pronoun that can refer to both men and women (generic usage). (Younger speakers use sometimes guys in this way in informal situations.) Many recent style guides discourage generic constructions on political grounds. Some writers prefer to alternate between male and female generic usage to provide clarity without the appearance of bias. Other speakers intentionally use female generic forms as a political or cultural statement against the conventional practice of generic use of the masculine form.
General solution
Many languages share the same issue with English. The universal conventional solution is based on the context, which is always the same—the antecedent is a representative individual of a class, whose gender is unknown or irrelevant. Normally masculine, but sometimes feminine, forms of singular pronouns are supplied, in what is called generic usage. The context makes the generic intent of the usage clear in communication.
- Example: An ambitious academic will publish as soon as she can.
Unless there is reason to believe the speaker thinks ambitious academics are always female, the use of she in this sentence must be interpreted as a generic use.
Modern problem
It is the overlap of generic use with gender role stereotyping that led to controversy in English.[4]
- A nurse should ensure she gets adequate rest.
- A police officer should maintain his fitness.
- A dancer should watch her diet carefully.
- A boss should treat his staff well.
In these examples, there is very good reason to suppose that the speaker does indeed believe and that all nurses are female, or that all bosses are male.
Modern solutions
If a speaker is ideologically opposed to gender role stereotyping, he can use one of the following strategies.[5]
- A boss should treat her staff well. (Use of the pronoun opposite to expected gender.)
- Bosses should treat their staff well. (Rephrasing the sentence.)
- A boss should treat their staff well. (Use of singular they.)
- A boss should treat eir staff well. (Rare use of a Spivak pronoun; also see gender-neutral pronouns.)
There is both historical precedent for the third option,[6] as well as popular contemporary usage. However, there are contemporary, as well as historical, style guides that discourage this option.
| “ | Most of the Usage Panelists reject the use of they with singular antecedents.[7] Eighty-two percent find the sentence The typical student in the program takes about six years to complete their course work unacceptable. …Panel members do seem to distinguish between singular nouns, such as the typical student, and pronouns that are grammatically singular but semantically plural, such as anyone and everyone.[8] | ” |
There are also contexts in which they used with singular generic antecedent leads to ambiguity. Generic questions wanting specific answers.
- Would you like tea or coffee? Yes. Choice is unclear.
- Would you like tea or coffee? Tea, please.
- Did my parents leave a message? Yes, they did. Parental figure unclear.
- Did my parents leave a message? Yes, your mother called.
Other alternatives
Options other than generic pronouns, rephrasing in the plural, or using they can be well suited to some contexts, but problematic in others.
- A boss should treat her or his staff well. (Issues: cumbersome if overused, have to place genders in an order.)
- If (s)he does, it is good. (Issue: written option only.)
- Thon will be happy and so will they. (Issue: none of the invented pronouns – thon, xe, and many others – have been accepted into the language.)[9]
- They will be happy and so will they. (Note: "singular" they is clearly awful here.)
The indefinite personal pronoun, one, is suitably singular, personal and indefinite with respect to gender; but its very indefiniteness precludes it taking any antecedent but itself.
- One takes care of one's own.
Strictly speaking, it is not even third person, it is often used as a circumlocution to refer indirectly to speaker or hearer.
- One may indeed have done something like that. (However, I am not going to admit that, in fact, I did.)
- One would do well to be very careful under the circumstances. (Watch your back)
Political opinions
Some modern prescriptivists argue from the valid use of they in certain contexts, to making it valid or even mandatory in all. Other prescritivists argue ideologically that generic he should be proscribed. Both these points of view have found many followers; however, they generally do not accurately describe the usage or rationale of the wide range of options common in the English language.
| “ | The reforms involving gender are explicitly political in intent and represent a quest for social justice rather than a wish for more consistent logic. And unlike other political language reforms, which tend to be limited to individual names for ethnic groups, gender reforms involve basic grammatical components like pronouns, basic grammatical rules like pronoun agreement, and basic words like man, father, male and female. Some of these elements have been in the language for over a thousand years. It is not surprising, therefore, that the effort to undo them can often be a difficult and untidy business.[10] | ” |
See also
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References
- ^ Mark Balhorn, 'The Rise of Epicene They', Journal of English Linguistics 32 (2004): 79–104.
- ^ 'Gender', in The American Heritage Book of English Usage: A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996).
- ^ Susanne Wagner (2004-07-22). "Gender in English pronouns: Myth and reality" (PDF). Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg.
- ^ Julie Foertsch and Morton Ann Gernsbacher, 'In Search of Gender Neutrality: Is Singular They a Cognitively Efficient Substitute for Generic He?' Psychological Science 8 (1997): 106–111.
- ^ Michael Quinion, 'Gender-Neutral Pronouns', 2002.
- ^ "A person can't help their birth." William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, 1848, c. 41.
- ^ "This group of some 200 distinguished educators, writers, and public speakers enriches [the] dictionary with their judgments concerning difficult or disputed usage. Most of its members are writers, editors, critics, or educators while others hold distinguished positions in law, government, diplomacy, medicine, science, business, and the arts." See The American Heritage Usage Panel.
- ^ 'They', The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth edition, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000).
- ^ Dennis Baron, 'The Epicene Pronouns: A Chronology of the Word That Failed', 2006.
- ^ 'Gender', in The American Heritage Book of English Usage, work cited.
External links
- Helge Lødrup. 'Norwegian Anaphors without Visible Binders'. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 19 (2007): 1–22. Available at http://journals.cambridge.org.
- Anna Pycha, Constance Milbrath and Stephen Eyre. 'Anaphora in African-American English'. Oakland: Linguistics Society of America, 2005.
- Jeffrey T. Runner and Elsi Kaiser. 'Binding in Picture Noun Phrases: Implications for Binding Theory'. In Proceedings of the HPSG05 Conference. Edited by Stefan Müller. Lisbon: CSLI Publications, 2005.
- Marta Luján. 'Determiners as Modified Pronouns'. Círculo de lingüística aplicada a la comunicación 9 (2002).
Literature
- Carlson, Greg. Reference to Kinds in English. Ph.D. Thesis. University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1977.
- De Swart, H. '(In)definites and genericity'. In Quantifiers, Deduction and Context. Edited by M. Kanazawa and others. Stanford: CSLI: 171–199.
- Wilkinson, Karina. Studies in the Semantics of Generic Noun Phrases. Ph.D. Thesis. University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1991.
