{"title":"Non-sexist Language Policy and the Rise (and Fall?) of Combined Pronouns in British and American Written English","authors":"Laura L. Paterson","doi":"10.1177/0075424220938949","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This paper focuses on the use of combined pronouns (s/he, his or her, him/her, etc.) as an example of late twentieth-century non-sexist language reform which had an overt democratizing aim. Within the scope of second-wave feminism, the use of combined pronouns increased the visibility of women in discourse by encouraging the use of feminine pronouns (she, her, hers) alongside masculine pronouns (he, him, his). Despite their promotion, however, the use of combined pronouns is relatively rare. This paper uses the LOB and Brown families of corpora to diachronically and synchronically study patterns in the use of combined pronouns in written American (AmE) and British English (BrE) from the 1930s to the early 2000s. The analysis not only determines what forms these patterns take, but questions whether combined pronouns are influenced by (a combination of) syntax and/or semantics, and questions whether combined pronouns are really democratic at all.","PeriodicalId":51803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English Linguistics","volume":"48 1","pages":"258 - 281"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2020-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0075424220938949","citationCount":"4","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of English Linguistics","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424220938949","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 4
Abstract
This paper focuses on the use of combined pronouns (s/he, his or her, him/her, etc.) as an example of late twentieth-century non-sexist language reform which had an overt democratizing aim. Within the scope of second-wave feminism, the use of combined pronouns increased the visibility of women in discourse by encouraging the use of feminine pronouns (she, her, hers) alongside masculine pronouns (he, him, his). Despite their promotion, however, the use of combined pronouns is relatively rare. This paper uses the LOB and Brown families of corpora to diachronically and synchronically study patterns in the use of combined pronouns in written American (AmE) and British English (BrE) from the 1930s to the early 2000s. The analysis not only determines what forms these patterns take, but questions whether combined pronouns are influenced by (a combination of) syntax and/or semantics, and questions whether combined pronouns are really democratic at all.
期刊介绍:
Journal of English Linguistics: The Editor invites submissions on the modern and historical periods of the English language. JEngL normally publishes synchronic and diachronic studies on subjects from Old and Middle English to modern English grammar, corpus linguistics, and dialectology. Other topics such as language contact, pidgins/creoles, or stylistics, are acceptable if the article focuses on the English language. Articless normally range from ten to twenty-five pages in typescript. JEngL reviews titles in general and historical linguistics, language variation, socio-linguistics, and dialectology for an international audience. Unsolicited reviews cannot be considered. Books for review and correspondence regarding reviews should be sent to the Editor.