British Pronoun Use, Prescription, and Processing [electronic resource] : Linguistic and Social Influences Affecting 'They' and 'He' /
Paterson, L.author.
This study considers the use of they and he for generic reference in post-2000 written British English. The analysis is framed by a consideration of language-internal factors, such as syntactic agreement, and language-external factors, which include traditional grammatical prescriptivism and the language reforms resulting from second-wave feminism.
Description based upon print version of record.
Cover; Contents; List of Tables; List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1 Exploring Epicene Pronouns in History; Characteristics of the personal pronouns; Previous changes: trends throughout history; Pronoun acquisition; The psychological reality of epicene pronouns; What epicenes mean; Differences between generic he and singular they; Conclusions; 2 Epicenes in the Twenty-First Century; Corpus linguistics: a problematic methodology?; The BE06 corpus; Singular they and generic he in BE06; Comparing they with he in BE06; Qualitative antecedent analysis; Gender-stereotyped antecedents
Conclusions3 Epicenes and Social Movements; Contextualising epicene prescriptions; Initiating formal prescriptive practice; Tracing epicene history; The effects of sexual politics; Feminism and language; Non-sexist language and epicenes; Epicenes in education; 'Correct' language in educational handbooks; Modern approaches to epicenes; Conclusions; 4 Prescriptions, Standards, and Epicenes; Creating The Grammar Corpus; Analysing prescriptions; Endorsing epicene candidates; Avoiding problematic antecedents; Social interference?; Corpus Comparative Statistical Keywords; Keywords in the corpus
Conclusions5 Accounting for Epicene Choice; The British English epicene; Epicenes and language-external forces; Explaining epicene reference; Notional number and other explanations; Homonymy Theory; Conclusions; Conclusion; Notes; Glossary; References; Index
Includes bibliographical references and index.
This study considers the use of they and he for generic reference in post-2000 written British English. The analysis is framed by a consideration of language-internal factors, such as syntactic agreement, and language-external factors, which include traditional grammatical prescriptivism and the language reforms resulting from second-wave feminism.
Sociolinguistics.
Sociology.
Feminist theory.
Sociolinguistics.
Gender Studies.
Feminism.