Singular they

Singular they is the use of they (or its inflected forms, such as them or their) to refer to an entity that is not plural, or not necessarily plural. Though singular they is widespread in everyday English and has a long history of usage, debate continues about its acceptability. It occurs in two main situations:

In some cases, they is used even when both the number and gender of the subject are known, but the identity of the person is generic, e.g. "If some guy beat me up, I'd leave them."

Though semantically singular or ambiguous, singular they remains morphologically and syntactically plural (e.g. it still takes plural forms of verbs).

Contents

Summary

Generic they has indeterminate number:

(Their can be understood equally well as referring to each man considered one at a time, or to all of them collectively.)

Epicene they has indeterminate gender:

(The relevant person here is Becky Sharp. Thackeray has Rosalind using their as a polite circumlocution, perhaps avoiding the directness of she ... her, and generic his in a context involving only women; or perhaps with Rosalind meaning the statement to apply to people in general with Becky Sharp as an example.)

In neither case is singular they unambiguously a semantic or morpho-syntactic singular. What it actually agrees with is the plurality implicit in the indeterminacy of generic antecedents.[1]

This is explained by David Lewis's analysis of an aspect of the logic of the semantics of natural language,[2] now called quantificational variability effect (QVE).[3] Broader research in the area is still active, under the name donkey pronouns.[4]

In this kind of analysis, singular they in English is typically an example of a semantically bound variable,[5] rather than a simple referential pronoun.[6] It is most clearly evident in the special case of distributive constructions,[7] where the preference many languages show for singular pronouns probably gives rise to the singular in "singular they".[8]

Steven Pinker proposes the word they be considered to be a pair of homonyms — two different words with the same spelling and sound.[9]

Technical terms

Distribution

Distributive constructions apply a single idea to multiple members of a group, hence involving both singularities (the idea, the group, each individual member, and the relation of idea to member) and pluralities (the members and the repeated relation). They are typically marked in English by words like each, every and any. The simplest examples are applied to groups of two, and use words like either and or—"Would you like tea or coffee" (you like distributed over tea and coffee). Thorough analysis of distribution requires treatment of negation.[10] Hence, the Shakespeare quote above is semantically distributive, because there's not a man who... is logically equivalent to every man does not.... Since distributive constructions apply an idea relevant to each individual in the group, rather than to the group as a whole, they are most often conceived of as singular, and a singular pronoun is used.

— John Ray, A Collection of English Proverbs, 1670
originally from Plutarch, Moralia, c. 95 AD, regarding the death of Euripides

However, English is typical as many languages show ambivalence in this regard. Because distribution also requires a group with more than one member, plural forms are sometimes used.[11] The Shakespeare quote is probably an example of such a usage. The alternative would be that he intended epicene they in agreement with generic man, including women.

Many clear examples of the plural being used in other languages, and coming into English by translation, are found in the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, which attempted to be very literal. For example, Philippians 2:3 has a plural pronoun (ἑαυτῶν) in the Greek,[12] rendered "themselves" in the KJV. The fact that singular forms are, nonetheless, more natural in distributive constructions is inadvertently demonstrated by websites that, not having access to the original languages in these cases, assume singular interpretations of they in what are actually translations of plurals.[13][14]

English is typical among many languages because it forms distributives with pronouns and marks for singular and plural. Such languages demonstrate a preference for singular pronouns but attest plurals in a substantial minority of cases. Both forms being comprehensible to native speakers, usage depends on context, clarity, style and logic (for logic, see below).

Strunk and White's The Elements of Style notes both uses.

A common inaccuracy is the use of the plural pronoun when the antecedent is a distributive expression such as each, each one, everybody, every one, many a man, which, though implying more than one person, requires the pronoun to be in the singular. Similar to this, but with even less justification, is the use of the plural pronoun with the antecedent anybody, any one, somebody, some one, the intention being either to avoid the awkward he or she, or to avoid committing oneself to either. Some bashful speakers even say, A friend of mine told me that they ...[15]

This is a semantic assessment (note the words "inaccuracy", "implying", "requires", "justification" and "intention"),[15] rather than a syntactic linguistic prescription (as some have, rather loosely, claimed).[14] Prescriptions of taste are not true or false, so they cannot be proven right or wrong;[16] however, claims regarding accuracy can be demonstrated to be true or false.[17] Strunk and White have been proven wrong on this point by logical analysis of quantification in natural language (like Pinker following Lewis and others above) — distributive expressions are neither exclusively singular nor exclusively plural, they are typically indeterminate in number.[9]

Quantification

The simplest examples of quantification are existential and universal statements, which are marked in English by phrases like there is or words like all. However, there are different types of quantification marked by other words like many, more and most. Quantification is also apparent in language referring to time, marked by words like always, often, sometimes, once or never. Apart from quantifiers that refer to a unique singularity, like there is and once, they necessarily imply a distributive concept: multiple similar things. Even in the case of there is and once, logical analysis views many of these as distributive statements equivalent to, out of all cases there is at least one. Hence literature seeking to explain quantification in natural language (λx in Montague grammar) often refers to distributive constructions, and vice versa.

Variables

The term variable arises due to the interest mathematicians, logicians, philosophers of language, theoretical linguists and computer language designers have in formal language representations of natural language.[18][19] In their metalanguage, quantifiers are applied over the "domain" (or "restriction") of a variable. Where natural language speakers use words or clitics to signal generalizations, language analysts define what they call variables that range over any element of the set of members of a group — the domain. Consider the examples of

“ To be is to be the value of a bound variable. ”

—Quine, 'On What There Is', 1948[20]

The symbol, b, is used to represent a variable that can refer to any boy (the elements of the set of all boys, B). The upside-down A is a standard symbol for the universal quantifier — for all, for each or for every in natural language. In predicate logic, the truth-value of the proposition expressed above in a formal language does not depend on the particular value of the variable, b. This matches our natural language understanding. Whether or not every good boy deserves fruit doesn't depend on any particular boy. Because the truth-value of the proposition doesn't depend on the value of the variable, the variable is called bound. If, however, there is no quantifier, the variable is called free, and the truth-value of the proposition depends on the value of the variable. This also matches natural language. Whether Adam is bad or deserves fruit depends on Adam.

The concept of free and bound variables arose in logic well before Quine discussed its relevance to the English language. Although the distinction may seem technical to native speakers of many languages, it is quite the reverse among the 250 or so autochthonous Australian languages. RMW Dixon describes how, historically, Australian languages show evidence of nouns inflecting on ergative, and bound pronouns on accusative patterns.[21] Only later did free pronouns enter common usage, and then only sparingly, for emphasis. Gradually, the free pronouns shifted from accusative inflection to ergative, since they have come to be perceived by speakers as a special kind of proper name. Dixon offers the Warlpiri language as a representative example.[22]

Pinker argues that usage of singular they in English cannot be condemned on grammatical grounds, because it is probably better understood as a linguistic marker of a bound variable rather than as a pronoun with a referent. "On logical grounds, then, variables are not the same thing as the more familiar 'referential' pronouns that trigger number agreement."[9] He gives the following example.

Everyone returned to their seats means 'For all X, X returned to X's seat.' The 'X' does not refer to any particular person or group of people. ... The their there ... refers neither to one thing nor to many things; it does not refer at all. Everyone and they are not an 'antecedent' and a 'pronoun' .... They are a 'quantifier' and a 'bound variable,' a different logical relationship.[9]

Pinker's example demonstrates the acceptability of plural forms in distributive constructions:

However, additional issues are raised by the attested usage of the logically equivalent alternative constructions of this distributive expression, using:

Usage

Generic he

Modern codification of the rule in English can be found in the mid 18th century with Anne Fisher's A New Grammar,[23][24] generic use of the pronoun he has been preferred (but not required) in such constructions by many contemporary grammar and usage books. For example, an 1896 grammar notes:

410. ... when the antecedent includes both masculine and feminine, or is a distributive word, taking in each of many persons,—the preferred method is to put the pronoun following in the masculine singular; if the antecedent is neuter, preceded by a distributive, the pronoun will be neuter singular.[25]

Examples of generic he

Generic he is still current English usage, though the gender neutral language movement discourages this use.

Generic they

Generic he has been a preference in usage, not a binding grammatical "rule", as Thackeray's use of both forms demonstrates. "The alternative to the masculine generic with the longest and most distinguished history in English is the third-person plural pronoun. Recognized writers have used they, them, themselves, and their to refer to singular nouns such as one, a person, an individual, and each since the 1300s."[28]

Examples of generic they

However, in some of these sentences, there is a component of pluralness in the meaning of "they".

Of the example from Shaw, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage (1989) states: "It would be a violation of English idiom to use a singular pronoun in [that] sentence (But he does get killed) on the assumption that because no man is singular in form and governs a singular verb, it must take a singular pronoun in reference. Notional agreement is in control, and its dictates must be followed."[30] In other words, no man is syntactically singular, demonstrated by taking the singular form goes; however, it is semantically plural (all go [to kill] not to be killed), hence idiomatically requiring generic or plural (not singular) they.

Despite such use of they by admired writers for many centuries, many Americans avoid use of they to refer to a singular antecedent out of respect for a purported grammatical rule.[31] A majority of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language usage panel generally claimed to "reject the use of they with singular antecedents," though this depended on the context and the semantics of the individual sentence; thus 82% of the panelists found the sentence "The typical student in the program takes about six years to complete their course work" to be unacceptable, but 64% accepted No one is willing to work for those wages anymore, are they? in informal speech.[31]

A study has also shown that reading time of they increased significantly when used with a gender-determinate antecedent, suggesting that such use can confuse.[32]

Both generic he and generic they have long histories of use, and both are still used. However, both are also systematically avoided by particular groups. Style guides that avoid expressing a preference for either approach recommend recasting generic expressions as plurals to avoid the criticisms of either party.

Irrespective of the debate, when used, generic they can be seen to have an implication of indefinite reference (indefinite number or indefinite gender). It is most commonly used with indefinite referents of a distributive nature such as someone, anyone, everyone, and no one. Such references are not to one particular person but to a large group taken one at a time, causing influence from the implied plural.

Grammatical analysis

According to the traditional analysis,[33] English personal pronouns are typically used to refer backward or forward within a sentence to a noun phrase (which may be a simple noun).

Inflected forms
Nominative (subject) Accusative (object) Prenominal possessive Predicative possessive Reflexive
He He laughs. I hug him. His hair grows. I use his. He feeds himself.
She She laughs. I hug her. Her hair grows. I use hers. She feeds herself.
Prototypical they When my kids watch "The Simpsons", they laugh. Whether they win or lose, I hug them. As long as people live, their hair grows. Most of my friends have cell phones, so I use theirs. The children feed themselves.
Singular they When I tell someone a joke they laugh. When I greet a friend I hug them. When someone does not get a haircut, their hair grows long. If my mobile phone runs out of power, a friend that I am with lets me borrow theirs. Each child feeds themself.
Generic he When I tell someone a joke he laughs. When I greet a friend I hug him. When someone does not get a haircut, his hair grows long. If my mobile phone runs out of power, a friend that I am with lets me borrow his. Each child feeds himself.

Plural

Generic (indeterminate number)

Singular

In the middle two of these example sentences, traditional grammars speak of the pronoun referring to a good student. However, following analysis by Quine,[5] writers like Lewis (above) understand structures involving generic antecedents to be a logically distinct class. Pinker notes the pronouns are not in fact referring to anything in particular. Geoffrey Pullum uses the logical, rather than grammatical, term bound variable to describe such expressions.

Irrespective of how such cases are explained grammatically, however, both are well-formed English sentences. Both are attested in English literature prior to the 20th century, and both are still attested in 21st century English.[34][35]

Singular they, although morphologically a plural pronoun, is often used in those circumstances when an indefinite number is signified by an indefinite singular antecedent; for example,

This is analogous to the pronoun you, which originally was only plural, but by about 1700 replaced thou for singular referents,[36] while retaining the plural verb form. Some uses of singular they follow a grammatical rule whereby singular indefinite antecedents (such as everyone, anyone, no one, and all) are followed by a coordinate or independent clause containing the plural pronoun 'they'. The plural reflexive form themselves is used as well; with some speakers using the singular form themself, in particular with semantically singular they.

Even when the gender is known, they is sometimes found with a generic referent. For example: "A teenage boy rarely thinks about their future."[37] A teenage boy rarely thinks about his future is more likely in formal writing.

Many other modern uses follow the prescription of gender-neutral English in the style manuals of various organizations. As the syntactically singular third-person pronouns of English are all either gender-specific (he and she) or inappropriate for reference to people (it), singular they is also often used where the sex of the referent is either unknown or irrelevant:

Gender-neutral language movement

In the late 20th century, the feminist movement expressed concern regarding the use of generic he in the English language. The feminist claim was that such usage contributes to an assumption that maleness is "standard," and that femaleness is "different". It also claimed that such use is misogynistic. One response to this was an increase in the use of generic she in academic journal articles from around this time. However, the more common response has been prescriptive, with many institutions publishing gender neutral style guides, notably in government, academia and publishing.[38] For example, The Cambridge Guide to English Usage (2004) expresses several preferences. "Generic/universal their provides a gender-free pronoun, avoiding the exclusive his and the clumsy his/her."

It avoids gratuitous sexism and gives the statement broadest reference....They, them, their are now freely used in agreement with singular indefinite pronouns and determiners, those with universal implications such as any(one), every(one), no(one), as well as each and some(one), whose reference is often more individual....For those listening or reading, it has become unremarkable—an element of common usage.[39]

The use of masculine generic nouns and pronouns in written and spoken language has decreased since the 1960s.[40] In a corpus of spontaneous speech collected in Australia in the 1990s, singular they had become the most frequently used generic pronoun.[41] The increased usage of singular they may be at least partly due to an increasing desire for gender-neutral language; while writers a hundred years ago might have had no qualm using he with a referent of indeterminate gender, writers today often feel uncomfortable with this. One solution in formal writing has often been to write he or she, or something similar, but this is considered awkward when used excessively, overly politically correct,[42] or both.

In certain contexts, singular they may sound less obtrusive and more natural than generic he, or he or she. One guide offered the following example:

Nobody in their right mind would do a thing like that.[43]

Some grammar and usage guides have accepted singular uses of they, in cases limited to references to an indeterminate person.[44] For example, A person might find themself in a fix is considered standard English, but not Dr. Brown might find themself in a fix. For the latter, the most usual circumlocutions are: recasting the sentence in the plural (Doctors might find themselves...), second person (If you're a doctor, you might find yourself...), or sometimes reflexive (One might find oneself …). Singular they is occasionally used to refer to an indeterminate person whose gender is known, as in No mother should be forced to testify against their child.

Some college handbooks, such as The Little, Brown Handbook, continue to view singular they as grammatically inconsistent, and recommend either recasting in the plural or avoiding the pronoun altogether.[45] Others say that there is no sufficient reason not to extend singular they to include specific people of unknown gender, as well as to gender non-conforming, bigender, intersexual and androgyne people, and those who do not identify exclusively with either gender.[46]

Some manuals of style remain neutral on the subject while other style manuals explicitly reject the use of singular they in grammar. According to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Society, a pronoun must agree in both gender and number with the noun it replaces. The APA manual offers the following example as incorrect reflexive usage:

Neither the highest scorer nor the lowest scorer in the group had any doubt about their competence.[47]

while also specifically taking a stand that generic he is unacceptable (p. 66). The APA recommends using he or she, recasting the sentence with a plural subject to allow correct use of they, or simply rewriting the sentence to avoid issues with gender or number.

The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) also maintains that pronouns must agree in number with their antecedents, and that the singular they is incorrect usage.[48]

Acceptability

By definition, debate about whether singular they is acceptable or not lies within the realm of prescriptive grammar. Current debate relates not only to grammar but also to wider questions of political correctness and equal rights, and in particular, the extent to which language influences thought.

There has been considerable debate as to the acceptability of singular they. Regarding usage, The Chicago Manual of Style notes:

On the one hand, it is unacceptable to a great many reasonable readers to use the generic masculine pronoun (he) in reference to no one in particular. On the other hand, it is unacceptable to a great many readers either to resort to nontraditional gimmicks to avoid the generic masculine (by using he/she or s/he, for example) or to use they as a kind of singular pronoun. Either way, credibility is lost with some readers.[49]

With the 14th edition (1993), the Manual briefly revised its neutral stance to actually recommend "singular use of they and their", noting a "revival" of this usage and citing "its venerable use by such writers as Addison, Austen, Chesterfield, Fielding, Ruskin, Scott, and Shakespeare."[50] However, regret regarding that printing is expressed at its website; and with the current 15th edition (2003), it has returned to its original neutral position.[51]

The 2011 translation of the New International Version Bible utilizes singular they instead of "he" or "he or she", reflecting changes in English usage. The translators commissioned a study of modern English usage and determined that singular "they" ("them"/"their") is by far the most common way that English-language speakers and writers today refer back to singular antecedents such as "whoever, anyone, somebody, a person, no one, and the like."[52]

Comparison with other languages

If, following Pinker's proposal, they is considered as a pair of homonyms, this would be analogous to a language like Basque, which uses the word nork both as an indeterminate pronoun meaning "who" and also as a marker in distributive constructions.

Basque has two ways of expressing universal distributive quantifications: (i) lexically, through the quantifier bakoitz 'each'; (ii) configurationally, through the construction exemplified in (1).

(1) Nork/zeinek bere ama ikusi du
who-erg/which-erg his/her mother seen has
'Everyone saw his/her mother'

In (1), an indeterminate pronoun takes on a universal distributive value. Such a value is not a lexical property of the relevant indeterminate pronouns.[53]

Basque is far from the only example of this. S.-Y. Kuroda considers it typical of East Asian languages, Japanese and Korean in particular.[54] Yet other languages have even more particular ways of expressing distribution and quantification. Sumerian, structurally similar to Basque, uses a nominal suffix, dedli, to indicate "each individual".[55] Some suggest that such a linguistic dispute is typical of Indo-European languages, especially Slavic languages such as Russian and Bulgarian where the system of singular and plural nouns is quite complex.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "The use of the plural anaphoric ... pronouns 'they' or 'them' to mark non-reference or vague reference in spoken English is well entrenched, as in:
    (63) a. If anybody shows up, tell them to wait.
    b. If anybody did that, they'd be insane."
    Talmy Givón, Syntax: an introduction, Volume 1, Revised edition, (John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2001), p. 435. ISBN 1-58811-066-4
  2. ^ Lewis notes that adverbs of quantification operate beyond moments to periods, cases and variables generally, sometimes unrestricted, other times restricted by conditionals; and he demonstrates how, often, both adverbs and conditionals may not be explicitly present in natural language, but may be reconstituted in "canonical form", with isomorphic truth-functionality, hence (logically) identical interpretation. David Lewis, 'Adverbs of Quantification', in EL Keenan (ed.), Formal Semantics of Natural Language, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), pp. 3–15. Reprinted as chapter 7 in Paul Portner and Barbara H. Partee (eds), Formal Semantics: The Essential Readings, (Blackwell, 2002).
  3. ^ Berman is usually cited, see the following.
    • The Semantics of Open Sentences. PhD thesis. University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1991.
    • 'An Analysis of Quantifier Variability in Indirect Questions'. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 11. Edited by Phil Branigan and others. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989. Pages 1–16.
    • 'Situation-Based Semantics for Adverbs of Quantification'. In J. Blevins and Anne Vainikka (eds). University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers 12. Graduate Linguistic Student Association, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1987.
  4. ^ These are special because they are "bound" in semantics but not syntax. The name is taken from examples in Peter Thomas Geach, Reference and Generality: An Examination of Some Medieval and Modern Theories, (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1962).
  5. ^ a b Willard Van Orman Quine, 'Variables Explained Away', Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 104 (1960): 343–347.
  6. ^ Or "pronoun of laziness". Geach, work cited.
  7. ^ Since these make the quantification explicit.
  8. ^ For, specifically, donkey anaphora analogues in languages other than English, see publications by Adrian Brasoveanu.
  9. ^ a b c d Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct, 1994. Quoted online.
  10. ^ MA Just and PA Carpenter, 'Comprehension of Negation with Quantification', Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 10 (1971): 244–253.
  11. ^ "Either the plural or the singular may be acceptable for a true bound pronoun.
    (59) Every student thinks she / they is / are smart." (p. 142.)
    C.-T. James Huang (1995), "Logical form", pages 125–240 in Gert Webelhuth, Government and binding theory and the minimalist program: principles and parameters in syntactic theory, Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-18061-3
  12. ^ Textus Receptus
  13. ^ Everybody loves their Jane Austen @ CrossMyT.com by Henry Churchyard, author of "Early Arabic siin and šiin in light of the proto-semitic fricative-lateral hypothesis", pages 313ff. in Mushira Eid and Clive Holes (eds), Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics, 1993.
  14. ^ a b "Singular they": God said it, I believe it, that settles it, Language Log 13 September, 2006.
  15. ^ a b Strunk and White, The Elements of Style, revised 1959, reprinted 1999.
  16. ^ "They may or may not conform to standards of usage or taste. But they are not true or false." Howard K. Wettstein, The Magic Prism: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
  17. ^ For accuracy implying true or false, see Accuracy and precision for a common example of usage.
  18. ^ Notably Bertrand Arthur William Russell and Richard Merett Montague.
  19. ^ "The concept of variable, as nowadays employed within logic and mathematics, is inseparably connected with the concept of quantifier developed by Gottlob Frege and his followers." Jaroslav Peregrin, "Variables in natural language: where do they come from?", 2000.
  20. ^ Willard Van Orman Quine, 'On What There Is', Review of Metaphysics 2 (1948): 21–28.
  21. ^ RMW Dixon, The Rise and Fall of Languages, (Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 57.
  22. ^ See RMW Dixon (1994): 96–97.
  23. ^ http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/hsl_shl/femgram.htm
  24. ^ http://books.google.ca/books?id=UgjobddCa18C&lpg=PP1&dq=grammar%20and%20usage&pg=PA185#v=onepage&q=singular%20they&f=false
  25. ^ W. M. Baskervill and J. W. Sewell, An English Grammar, 1896. Emphasis added.
  26. ^ Caxton, William (1890) [c. 1489]. Bradley, Henry. ed. Dialogues in French and English. Project Gutenberg. pp. 38f. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29214/29214-h/29214-h.htm. Retrieved 2011-18-11 
  27. ^ Alex Spillius , "US elections: Hillary Clinton 'about to drop out'", The Daily Telegraph 12 May 2008.
  28. ^ 'They with Singular Antecedent', American Heritage Book of English Usage: A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English, 1996.
  29. ^ Caxton, William (1884) [c. 1489]. Richardson, Octavia. ed. The right plesaunt and goodly historie of the foure sonnes of Aymon. Early English Text Society. pp. 38f. http://www.archive.org/details/rightplesauntno4400caxtuoft. Retrieved 2010-02-04 
  30. ^ The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage (1989), p. 903.
  31. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2006 [2000]. p. 1796. ISBN 978-0618701728. 
  32. ^ J. Foertsch and MA Gernsbacher, 'In Search of Gender Neutrality: Is Singular They a Cognitively Efficient Substitute for Generic He?', Psychological Science 8 (1997): 106–111.
  33. ^ One that still has many adherents among linguists; for example Huddleston and Pullum, Student's Introduction. (2005)
  34. ^ Huddleston and Pullum, Student's Introduction, p.105.
  35. ^ "For those listening or reading, it has become unremarkable – an element of common usage." (The Cambridge Guide to English Usage, p. 538)
  36. ^ Guide to English Usage (2004) p.539
  37. ^ Michael Newman (1997) Epicene pronouns: The linguistics of a prescriptive problem; Newman (1997) "What can pronouns tell us? A case study of English epicenes", Studies in language 22:2, 353–389.
  38. ^ Some examples: Federation Press Style Guide for use in preparation of book manuscripts (PDF file); Australian Guide to Legal Citation
  39. ^ Cambr. Guide to Eng. Usage (2004), p. 538
  40. ^ Pauwels 2003, p. 563.
  41. ^ Pauwels, (p. 564)
  42. ^ Lou Ann Matossian, Burglars, Babysitters, and Persons: A Sociolinguistic Study of Generic Pronoun Usage in Philadelphia and Minneapolis (University of Pennsylvania, 1997). Retrieved 10 June 2006.
  43. ^ Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, A Student's Introduction to English Grammar (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005; ISBN 0-521-84837-7), pp. 103–105.
  44. ^ American Heritage Dictionary, (1992); and Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition (1993); cited in Laura Madson and Robert Hessling, "Readers' Perceptions of Four Alternatives to Masculine Generic Pronouns", Journal of Social Psychology 141.1 (February 2001): 156–158. See also Baranowski 2002.
  45. ^ Fowler, Henry Ramsey; Jane E. Aaron (1992). The Little, Brown Handbook (5th ed.). HarperCollins. pp. 300–301. ISBN 0-673-52132-X.  N.B.: This is not the English usage authority Henry Watson Fowler.
  46. ^ Amy Warenda, "They", Writing across the Curriculum 4 (April 1993): 89–97 (PDF file; URL accessed September 17, 2006); Juliane Schwarz, "Non-sexist language at the beginning of the 21st century: A feminist topic in a post-feminist era", research colloquium handout, 2003 (PDF file; URL accessed June 10, 2005); see also Baranowski 2002.
  47. ^ Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th Ed.). (2001). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. p. 47.
  48. ^ The OWL at Purdue. Retrieved September 17, 2008.
  49. ^ Chicago Manual of Style, 13th edition, (1983): p. 233.
  50. ^ Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition, (1993): p. 76-77.
  51. ^ Chicago Manual of Style Q&A
  52. ^ "New Bible draws critics of gender-neutral language". Associated Press. 17 March 2011. http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-03-17-US-REL-Gender-Neutral-Bible/id-0cebba035a1144038c21e6ae88c0d04d. Retrieved 18 March 2011. 
  53. ^ Ricardo Etxepare, 'Indeterminate pronouns and universal quantification in Basque', (University of California, Los Angeles, Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference 15, unpublished paper, 2005).
  54. ^ S.-Y. Kuroda, An Integrated Theory of Linguistic Description, (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1969).
  55. ^ Dietz Otto Edzard, Hand buch der Orientalistik, (Leiden: Brill, 2003).

Further reading

External links
Neologisms (Spivak pronouns · sie/hir · thon · ve · xe · ze · …)