Gender neutrality in languages with gendered third-person pronouns
Template:Short description Template:Redirect-multi Template:More citations needed Template:Use dmy dates A third-person pronoun is a pronoun that refers to an entity other than the speaker or listener.<ref name="WALS">Template:Cite book</ref> Some languages, such as Slavic, with gender-specific pronouns have them as part of a grammatical gender system, a system of agreement where most or all nouns have a value for this grammatical category. A few languages with gender-specific pronouns, such as English, Afrikaans, Defaka, Khmu, Malayalam, Tamil, and Yazgulyam, lack grammatical gender; in such languages, gender usually adheres to "natural gender", which is often based on biological sex.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Other languages, including most Austronesian languages, lack gender distinctions in personal pronouns entirely, as well as any system of grammatical gender.<ref name="WALS" />
In languages with pronominal gender, problems of usage may arise in contexts where a person of unspecified or unknown social gender is being referred to but commonly available pronouns are gender-specific. Different solutions to this issue have been proposed and used in various languages.
Overview of grammar patterns in languages
[edit]No gender distinctions in personal pronouns
[edit]Many languages of the world (including most Austronesian languages, many East Asian languages, the Quechuan languages, and the Uralic languages<ref name="WALS" />) do not have gender distinctions in personal pronouns, just as most of them lack any system of grammatical gender. In others, such as many of the Niger–Congo languages, there is a system of grammatical gender (or noun classes), but the divisions are based on classifications other than sex, such as animacy, rationality, or countability.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In Swahili, for example, the independent third person pronoun yeye 'she/he' can be used to refer to a female or male being. What matters in this case is that the referent belongs to the animate class (i.e humans or non-human animals) as opposed to an inanimate class.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Since pronouns do not distinguish the social gender of the referent, they are considered neutral in this kind of system.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Grammatical gender
[edit]In other languages – including most Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic languages – third-person personal pronouns (at least those used to refer to people) intrinsically distinguish male from female. This feature commonly co-exists with a full system of grammatical gender, where all nouns are assigned to classes such as masculine, feminine and neuter.
In languages with grammatical gender, even pronouns which are semantically gender-neutral may be required to take a gender for such purposes as grammatical agreement. Thus in French, for example, the first- and second-person personal pronouns may behave as either masculine or feminine depending on the sex of the referent; and indefinite pronouns such as Template:Lang ('someone') and Template:Lang ('no one') are treated conventionally as masculine, even though Template:Lang as a noun ('person') is only feminine regardless of the sex of the referent. (See Template:Slink.) There are both direct and indirect options for nonbinary referents, although the use of some forms is contested.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Example of agreement in a language with grammatical gender<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
(1) Les tomates, elles sont encore vertes. Formal French
'The tomatoes, they are still green.' FP,
(Lambrecht 1981:40, cited by Gelderen, 2022, p. 33)
(2) C'est que chacun, il a sa manière de ... Swiss spoken French
'Everyone has his own way of ...'
(Fronseca-Greber 2000:338, cited by Gelderen, 2022, p. 33)
Gender distinctions only in third-person pronouns
[edit]A grammatical gender system can erode as observed in languages such as Odia (formerly Oriya), English and Persian.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In English, a general system of noun gender has been lost, but gender distinctions are preserved in the third-person singular pronouns. This means that the relation between pronouns and nouns is no longer syntactically motivated in the system at large. Instead, the choice of anaphoric pronouns is controlled by referential gender or social gender.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Example of agreement in English<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
(3) Maryi described Billj to herselfi.
(4) Johnj came in and hej was wearing a hat.
Issues concerning gender and pronoun usage
[edit]Issues concerning gender and pronoun usage commonly arise in situations where it is necessary to choose between gender-specific pronouns, even though the sex of the person or persons being referred to is not known, not specified, or (for plurals) mixed. In English and many other languages, the masculine form has sometimes served as the default or unmarked form; that is, masculine pronouns have been used in cases where the referent or referents are not known to be (all) female.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This collective masculine is also the case in ancient languages, like Classical Greek and Biblical Hebrew and have influenced the modern forms. This leads to sentences such as (5a) in English, and (6a) in French.
Example of gender-neutral masculine: English
(5) a. If anybody comes, tell him. masculine him used to refer to a person of unknown sex
b. *If anybody comes, tell her. feminine her is not used to refer to a person of unknown sex
Example of collective masculine: French
(6) a. Vos amis sont arrivés — Ils étaient en avance.
'Your friends have arrived - they were early.'
Note: plural masculine ils used if group has men and women
b. Vos amies sont arrivées — Elles étaient en avance.
'Your friendsFEM have arrivedFEM - theyFEM were early.'
Note: plural feminine elles used if group has only women;
noun is feminine (amies), as is past participle (arrivées)
As early as 1795, dissatisfaction with the convention of the collective masculine led to calls for gender-neutral pronouns, and attempts to invent pronouns for this purpose date back to at least 1850, although the use of singular they as a natural gender-neutral pronoun in English has persisted since the 14th century.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Gender-neutral pronouns in modern standard English
[edit]Template:Further The English language has gender-specific personal pronouns in the third-person singular. The masculine pronoun is he (with the related forms him, his and himself); the feminine is she (with the related forms her, hers and herself); the neuter is it (with the related forms its and itself). The third-person plural they (and its related forms them, their, themselves) are gender-neutral and can also be used to refer to singular, personal antecedents, as in (7).
(7) Where a recipient of an allowance under section 4 absents themself from Canada,
payment of the allowance shall ...<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Generally speaking, he refers to males, and she refers to females. When a person has adopted a persona of a different gender (such as when acting or performing in drag), pronouns with the gender of the persona are used. In gay slang, the gender of pronouns is sometimes reversed (gender transposition).Template:Citation needed
He and she are normally used for humans; use of it can be dehumanizing, and, more importantly, implies a lack of gender even if one is present, and is usually, thus, inappropriate. It is sometimes used to refer to a baby or a child in a generic sense as in response to the question What is it? when a baby has been born: -It's a girl/boy. However, when talking to parents of intersex babies, some doctors are advised to use your baby instead.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is often used for non-human animals of unknown sex, but he or she is frequently used for a non-human animal with a known sex. He or she are also for a non-human animal who is referred to by a proper name, as in (8) where Fido is understood to be the name of a dog.<ref name="Huddleston 2002 gender">Template:Cite book</ref> At least one grammar states that he or she is obligatory for animals referred to by a proper name.<ref name="Huddleston 2002 gender" />
(8) Fido adores his blanket.
The other English pronouns (the first- and second-person personal pronouns I, we, you, etc.; the third-person plural personal pronoun they; the indefinite pronouns one, someone, anyone, etc.; and others) do not make male–female gender distinctions; that is, they are gender-neutral. The only distinction made is between personal and non-personal reference (someone vs. something, anyone vs. anything, who vs. what, whoever vs. whatever, etc.).
She is sometimes used for named ships and countries; this may be considered old-fashioned and is in decline.Template:Citation needed In some local dialects and casual speech she and he are used for various objects and named vehicles (like a personal car). Animate objects like robots and voice assistants are often assumed to have a gender and sometimes have a name with a matching gender. (See Template:Section link.)
For people who are transgender, style guides and associations of journalists and health professionals advise use of the pronoun preferred or considered appropriate by the person in question.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> When dealing with clients or patients, health practitioners are advised to take note of the pronouns used by the individuals themselves,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> which may involve using different pronouns at different times.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Stitt">Template:Cite book</ref> This is also extended to the name preferred by the person referred to.<ref name="Stitt" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> LGBTQ+ advocacy groups also advise using the pronouns and names preferred or considered appropriate by the person referred to.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> They further recommend avoiding gender confusion when referring to the background of transgender people, such as using a title or rank to avoid a gendered pronoun or name.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
For English, there is no universal agreement on a gender-neutral third-person pronoun which could be used for a person whose gender is unknown or who is a non-binary gender identity; various alternatives are described in the following sections.
Singular they as a gender-neutral pronoun
[edit]Template:Main Since at least the 14th century, they (including related forms such as them, their, theirs, themselves, and themself) has been used with a plural verb form to refer to a singular antecedent.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This usage is known as the singular they, as it is equivalent to the corresponding singular form of the pronoun.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
(9) There's not a man I meet but doth salute me
As if I were their well-acquainted friend
<(William Shakespeare, A Comedy of Errors, 1623)<ref name="Bjorkman 2017" />
instead of: As if I were his well-acquainted friend
This is the generalized usage in third person. To imply 'his' is incorrect.
(10) Every fool can do as they're bid.
<(Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation, 1738)<ref name="Bjorkman 2017" />
instead of: Every fool can do as he's bid.
(11) Both sisters were uncomfortable enough.
Each felt for the other, and of course for themselves.
<(Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1813)<ref name="Bjorkman 2017" />
instead of: Each felt for the other, and of course for herself.
Prescription against singular they has historically impacted more formal registers of writing. Conversely, to the present day, singular they continues to be attested in both speech and less formal registers of writing in British and American English.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Bjorkman 2017">Template:Cite journal</ref> Recent corpus data suggest that English dialects in Hong Kong, India, and Singapore use this epicene less than British English.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary include the following examples among the possible uses of singular they, which they note is not universally adopted by all speakers.
(12) Anyone who arrives at the door can let themself in using this key.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
(13) I knew certain things about ... the person I was interviewing ...
They had adopted their gender-neutral name a few years ago,
when they began to consciously identify as nonbinary ...
(Amy Harmon)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
While many speakers recognize the need for gender neutral pronouns, they nevertheless deem referential singular they, as in (13), ungrammatical or unfit for the job due to the ambiguity it can create in certain contexts.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> New pronouns such as ve (used in science fiction) and ze/hir have been proposed in order to avoid the perceived limitations of singular they.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Currently, these new pronouns are only used by a small percentage of speakers while singular they remains the most widely selected option.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Antecedents for singular they
[edit].jpg){kind=link}
Generally speaking, there are three kinds of antecedents with which the singular they can be used.<ref name="Konnely & Cowper 2020">Template:Cite journal</ref>
- In (14), singular they occurs with a quantified singular antecedent or a singular antecedent of unknown gender.
- In (15), singular they occurs with a singular antecedent known to be nonbinary or ungendered.
- In (16), singular they occurs with a singular antecedent of any gender, with no restriction on description or name.
In examples (14-16), subscripti indicates coreference; moreover, examples such as (15) and (16) are sometimes referred to as 'referential they'.<ref name="Conrod 2019">Template:Cite thesis</ref><ref name="Moulton et al. 2020">Template:Cite journal</ref>
(14) a. Anyonei who thinks theyi need more time should ask for an extension.<ref name="Konnely & Cowper 2020" />
b. The personi at the door left before I could see who theyi were.<ref name="Konnely & Cowper 2020" />
(15) a. Kellyi said theyi were leaving early.<ref name="Konnely & Cowper 2020" />
b. The strongest studenti will present theiri paper next.<ref name="Konnely & Cowper 2020" />
.jpg){kind=link}
(16) a. Mariai wants to send theiri students on the field trip.<ref name="Konnely & Cowper 2020" />
b. We heard from Arthuri that theyi needed time to think about the idea.<ref name="Konnely & Cowper 2020" />
c. We asked [the first girl in line]i to introduce themself/themselvesi.<ref name="Konnely & Cowper 2020" />
d. Your brotheri called to say theyi would be late.<ref name="Konnely & Cowper 2020" />
Speaker variation
[edit]In the twenty-first century, syntactic research differentiates three groups of English speakers which can be identified, based on their judgments about pronoun usage for (14), (15) and (16).<ref name="Bjorkman 2017" /><ref name="Konnely & Cowper 2020" />
- Group A speakers judge only (14) to be acceptable. Such speakers reject "referential" singular when they know the referent's binary gender, which is taken to indicate that gender features are contrastive in their lexicons. For this group of speakers, usage of singular they in (14) is acceptable to because the quantified antecedent anyone and the definite description the person lack a gender specification.
- Group B speakers judge both (14) and (15) to be acceptable. For these speakers, gender is thought to still be contrastive in their lexicons; however, they have created special entries for individuals that use the singular they pronoun.
- Group C speakers judge (14), (15) and (16) to be acceptable. It has been proposedTemplate:By whom that gender is losing its featural contrast in these speakers' lexicons.
| antecedent | group A usage | group B usage | group C usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| quantified, or gender is unknown, (14) | yes | yes | yes |
| nonbinary or ungendered, (15) | no | yes | yes |
| any gender, (16) | no | no | yes |
A recent study by Kirby Conrod found these speaker groups to be correlated with age and gender identity.<ref name="Conrod 2019" /> Relative to age, participants of all ages accepted the usage in (14), whereas younger participants rated usage of referential they in (15) and (16) higher than did their older counterparts. Relative to gender identity, non-binary and transgender participants rated referential they higher than did cisgender participants. Elsewhere, cisgender speakers with at least one trans or non-binary family member have also been found to rate all three cases as acceptable.<ref name="Konnely & Cowper 2020" /> Another study found a correlation between resistance to the second and third uses and prescriptivist attitudes about language.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Work by Keir Moulton and colleagues, published in 2020, has also found that the presence of a linguistic antecedent — which is the case for examples (14), (15), and (16) — significantly improves the acceptability judgments of singular they. In sentences with a linguistic antecedent, such as (17a), the use of singular they is judged to be equally acceptable whether or not the hearer knows the (binary) gender of the referent. In sentences where singular they is purely deictic and has no linguistic antecedent, such as (17b), the use of singular they is judged to be less acceptable than the use of a singular gendered pronoun (such as he or she) when the hearer knows the referent's (binary) gender. The authors suggest that the use of a gender-neutral antecedent (e.g. server or reporter) may signal the irrelevance of gender in the discourse context, making singular they more acceptable. Additionally, having a linguististic antecedent clarified that the speaker was referring to a singular antecedent, rather than a plural one. In the deictic case, without a linguistic antecedent, these signals were not overt, and the speakers' judgment depended more on their experience with the pronoun itself.<ref name="Moulton et al. 2020" />
Type of antecedent affects acceptability of singular their (subscript i denotes coreference)<ref name="Moulton et al. 2020" />
(17) a. The reporteri said that theiri cellphone was recording the whole interview.
Note: judged as more acceptable
b. Theyi said that theiri cellphone was recording the whole interview.
Note: judged as less acceptable
Another study found an effect of social distance on speaker judgments of singular they use.<ref name="Camilliere et al. 2019">Template:Cite conference</ref> Usage was judged to be more acceptable when the speaker was not personally close with the referent, compared to use for referents with whom the speaker was personally close.<ref name="Camilliere et al. 2019" /> The authors suggested that, in the former case, the referent's gender may be less likely to be known or relevant.<ref name="Camilliere et al. 2019" />
Reference to males and females
[edit]Generic he
[edit]Template:Anchor Template:FurtherTemplate:See also Forms of the pronoun he were used for both males and females during the Middle English and Modern English periods. Susanne Wagner observed that "There was rather an extended period of time in the history of the English language when the choice of a supposedly masculine personal pronoun (him) said nothing about the gender or sex of the referent."<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref> An early example of prescribing the use of he to refer to a person of unknown gender is Anne Fisher's 1745 grammar book A New Grammar.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Older editions of Fowler also took this view.<ref>Template:Cite book Reprint of the original 1926 edition, with an introduction and notes by David Crystal.</ref> This usage continues to this day:
(18) a. The customer brought his purchases to the cashier for checkout.
b. In a supermarket, a customer can buy anything he needs.
c. When a customer argues, always agree with him.
This may be compared to usage of the word man for humans in general (although that was the original sense of the word "man" in the Germanic languages, much as the Latin word for "human in general", homo, came to mean "male human"—which was vir, in Latin—in most of the Romance languages).
(19) a. All men are created equal.Template:Efn b. Man cannot live by bread alone.Template:Efn
The use, in formal English, of he, him or his as a gender-neutral pronoun has traditionally been considered grammatically correct.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> For example, William Safire in his "On Language" column in The New York Times approved of the use of generic he, mentioning the mnemonic phrase "the male embraces the female".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A reader replied with an example of use of the purportedly gender-neutral he, as in (20). Such examples point to the fact indiscriminate use of generic he leads to non-sensical violations of semantic gender agreement.<ref name="Miller & Swift p46">Template:Cite book</ref>
(20) "The average American needs the small routines of getting ready for work.
As he shaves or blow-dries his hair or pulls on his panty-hose,
he is easing himself by small stages into the demands of the day."
(C. Template:Not a typo, The New York Times (1985);<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> as quoted by Miller and Swift.<ref name="Miller & Swift p46" />)
The use of generic he has increasingly been a source of controversy, as it can be perceived as reflecting a positive bias towards men and a male-centric society, and a negative bias against women.<ref>Dale Spender, Man Made Language, Pandora Press, 1998, p. 152.</ref> In some contexts, the use of he, him or his as a gender-neutral pronoun may give a jarring or ridiculous impression:
(21) a. "... everyone will be able to decide for himself whether or not to have an abortion."
(Albert Bleumenthal, N.Y. State Assembly (cited in Longman 1984,
as quoted in Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage<ref name="Penguin">Template:Cite book</ref>
b. "... the ideal that every boy and girl should be so equipped
that he shall not be handicapped in his struggle for social progress..."
(C. C. Fries, American English Grammar (1940), quoted in Reader's Digest 1983;
as cited in Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage<ref name="Penguin" />
c. "... She and Louis had a game—who could find the ugliest photograph of himself."
(Joseph P. Lash, Eleanor and Franklin (1971), quoted in Reader's Digest 1983;
as cited in Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage)<ref name="Penguin" />
The use of generic he has also been seen as prejudicial by some, as in the following cases:
- The Massachusetts Medical Society effectively blocked membership of female physicians on the grounds that the society's by-laws used the pronoun he when referring to members.<ref name="Miller & Swift p46" />
- The Persons Case, the legal battle over whether Canadian women counted as legal persons eligible to sit in the Senate, partially turned on use of "he" to refer to a (generic) person qualified to be a senator.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Avoidance of the generic he is seen by proponents of non-sexist writing as indicating that the purportedly gender-neutral he is in fact not gender-neutral since it "brings a male image to mind".<ref name="Miller & Swift p46" /> Template:AnchorThe same would apply to the generic she, bringing a female image to mind. She has traditionally been used as a generic pronoun when making generalizations about people belonging to a group when most members of that group are assumed to be female:<ref name="Miller & Swift p46" />
(22) a. A secretary should keep her temper in check.
b. A nurse must always be kind to her patients.
The 19th and 20th centuries saw an upsurge in consciousness and advocacy of gender equality, and this has led in particular to advocacy for gender-neutral language. In this context, the usage of generic he has declined in favor of other alternatives.Template:Citation needed
He or she, (s)he
[edit]To disambiguate contexts where a referent encompasses both males and females, periphrasis is used. Though cumbersome, this solution is attested with the full range of English pronouns, include the subject pronouns he or she (23), the object pronouns him or her (24), the possessive pronoun his or hers (25), and the reflective pronouns himself or herself (26). In writing, these periphrastic forms are sometimes abbreviated to he/she, (s)he, s/he, him/her, his/her, himself/herself and hers/his, but are not easily abbreviated in verbal communication.<ref name="Cambridge s/he">Template:Cite web</ref> With the exception of (s)he and s/he, a writer does in principle have the choice of which pronoun to place first. However, usage indicates that the masculine pronouns is most often mentioned first.
(23) a. If any employee needs to take time off,
s/he should contact the Personnel Department.<ref name="Cambridge s/he" />
b. Talk to your doctor and see if s/he knows of any local groups.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
c. Each employee must sign the register when she/he enters or leaves.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
d. Read to children and let them participate from time to time by telling them what
they think the author would add if she or he was present with them.<ref name="Dubois & Crouch 1987">Template:Cite book</ref>
(24) a. How often do you perform small acts of kindness for your partner
(like making him or her coffee in the morning)?.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
b. Clearly, no one in the entire United States simply meets someone,
talks with him or her a while, and falls in love any more.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
(25) a. We must fight the tradition that forces the actor to accept poverty
as a precondition of his or her profession.<ref name="Dubois & Crouch 1987" />
b. Everyone will improve him/herself in his/her area ...<ref name="Ates 2012 4092–4096">Template:Cite journal</ref>
(26) a. ... at the collegiate level the student must advocate for himself or herself.<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref> b. ... no student, of any background, should be expected at the outset to recognize him or herself in it.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> c. Everyone will improve him/herself in his/her area ...<ref name="Ates 2012 4092–4096"/>
Some observers, such as the linguist James McCawley, suggest that the use of periphrastic forms may promote stereotypes: "he and she [can foster] the standard sexual stereotypes [in that] if you say he or she, you imply that women aren't included unless they are specifically mentioned, and you make it easier to talk about cases where only one sex is included than where both are."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Alternation of she and he
[edit]Authors sometimes employ rubricsTemplate:According to whom for selecting she or he such as:
- Use the gender of the primary author.
- Alternate between "she" and "he".
- Alternate by paragraph or chapter.
- Use she and he to make distinctions between two groups of people.
It as a gender-neutral pronoun
[edit]Old English had grammatical gender, and thus commonly used "it" for people, even where they were clearly female or male:
- Template:Lang (meaning 'child') had grammatical neuter gender, as did compound words formed from it, e.g. Template:Lang 'male-child' and Template:Lang 'female-child'. All three were pronominalized by the neuter pronoun it (Template:Transliteration).
- Template:Lang (meaning "female", modern "wife") had grammatical neuter gender, and so were pronominalized by the neuter pronoun it "it". When wif was the non-head member of a compound — as with Template:Transliteration 'female-person', modern 'woman' — the gender of the compound was determined by the head of the compound, in this case Template:Lang, which had grammatical masculine gender, and so was pronominalized by the masculine pronoun he.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Over time, English gradually developed a system of natural gender (gender based on semantic meaning) which now holds sway in Modern English.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
For human children
[edit]In Modern English, pronouns referring to adult humans are typically gendered: feminine she, masculine he. However, in some contexts, children may be referred to with the gender-neutral pronoun it. When not referring specifically to children, it is not generally applied to people, even in cases where their gender is unknown.
The 1985 edition of the Quirk et al. grammar observes that whereas he and she are used for entities treated as people (including anthropomorphized entities), the pronoun it is normally used for entities not regarded as persons. But the pronoun it can be used of children in some circumstances, for instance when the sex is indefinite or when the writer has no emotional connection to the child, as in a scientific context lsuch as (26).<ref name="Quirk et al. 1985">Template:Cite book</ref> According to The Handbook of Non-Sexist Writing (1995), it is also sometimes the "obvious" choice for children.<ref name="Miller & Swift p58">Template:Cite book</ref> Examples given include (27a), and the more colloquial (27b). It may even be used when the child's sex is known: In the passage given in (27c), the characters refer to the boy-child at the center of the narrative as a he, but then the narrator refers to it as an it. In this case, the child has yet to be developed into a character that can communicate with the reader.
(27) a. A child learns to speak the language of its environment.
(Quirk et al., A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985), p. 316–317, 342)
b. To society, a baby's sex is second in importance to its health.
(Miller & Swift, The Handbook of Non-Sexist Writing (1995), p. 58)
c. "He looks like nobody but himself," said Mrs. Owens, firmly.
... It was then that ... the child opened its eyes wide in wakefulness.
It stared around it ...
(Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book (2008), p. 25)
For non-human animals
[edit]The Quirk et al. 1985 grammar states that the use of gendered he or she is optional for non-human animals of known sex.<ref name="Quirk et al. 1985" /> It gives the following example, which illustrates the use of both the gender-neutral possessive its and the gendered possessive her to refer to a bird:
(28) The robin builds its nest in a well-chosen position ...
and, after the eggs have hatched, the mother bird feeds her young there for several weeks ...
(Quirk et al., A comprehensive grammar of the English language (1985), p. 316–317, 342)
One as a gender-neutral pronoun
[edit]Template:Main Another gender-neutral pronoun that can be used to refer to people is the impersonal pronoun, one. This can be used in conjunction with the generic he according to the preference and style of the writer.
- Each student should save his questions until the end.
- One should save one's questions until the end.
- One should save his questions until the end.
In colloquial speech, generic you is often used instead of one:
- You should save your questions until the end.
Historical, regional, and proposed gender-neutral singular pronouns
[edit]Historically, there were two gender-neutral pronouns native to English dialects, ou and (h)a.<ref>As with all pronouns beginning in h, the h is dropped when the word is unstressed. The reduced form a is pronounced Template:IPAc-en.</ref> According to Dennis Baron's Grammar and Gender:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Blockquote
Relics of these gender-neutral terms survive in some British dialects of Modern English — for example hoo for 'she', in Yorkshire — and sometimes a pronoun of one gender can be applied to a human or non-human animal of the opposite gender.
- hoo is also sometimes used in the West Midlands and south-west England as a common gender pronoun<ref>Template:Cite OED</ref>
- er can be used in place of either he or she in some West Country dialects, although only in weak (unstressed) positions such as in tag questions<ref>Arthur Hughes, Peter Trudgill, Dominic Watt, English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of English in the British Isles, 5th edition, Routledge, 2012, p. 35.</ref>
- hye could refer to either he<ref>Template:Cite OED</ref> or she<ref>Template:Cite OED</ref> in Essex in the south-east of England, in the Middle English period
- yo: a 2007 paper reports that in some schools in the city of Baltimore, yo has come to be used as a gender-neutral pronoun.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Since at least the 19th century, numerous proposals for the use of other non-standard gender-neutral pronouns have been introduced:
- e, (es, em) is the oldest recorded English gender-neutral (ungendered) pronoun with declension, coined by Francis Augustus Brewster in 1841.<ref name="Baron 2020">Template:Cite web</ref> E, es, em, and emself were also proposed by James Rogers in 1890.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The aim was to provide a neutral, ungendered pronoun because the link of pronouns to sex was considered a major flaw. Donald G. MacKay (1980) experimented with the use of e, es, em, and eself.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- thon, proposed by Charles Crozat Converse in 1884 — other sources date its coinage to 1858<ref>Writing about literature: essay and translation skills for university, p. 90 Template:Webarchive, Judith Woolf, Routledge, 2005</ref> — received the greatest mainstream acceptance. A contraction of 'that one', thon was listed in Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary from 1898 through to 1964, and was also included in Webster's Second New International Dictionary (but not in its the first and third editions).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- co was coined by the feminist writer Mary Orovan in 1970.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is in common usage in intentional communities of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> appearing in the bylaws of several of these communities.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In addition to using co when the gender of the antecedent is unknown or indeterminate, some use co as gender-blind language, where co replaces gendered pronouns.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- ze has several variants (see table below) and is used to meet the needs of unspecified gender situations and transgender persons.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite OED</ref> Kate Bornstein, an American transgender author, uses the pronoun forms ze and hir in the 1996 book Nearly Roadkill: An Infobahn Erotic Adventure.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Jeffrey A. Carver, an American science fiction writer, uses the pronoun hir in the 1989 novel From a Changeling Star for a different-gendered nonhuman.
Table of standard and non-standard third-person singular pronouns
[edit]Template:Anchor Template:More citations needed section
| Source | Nominative (subject) |
Oblique (object) |
Independent genitive (possessive) |
Dependent genitive (possessive) |
Reflexive | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard pronoun usage | ||||||
| he | he is laughing | I called him | his eyes gleam | that is his | he likes himself | |
| she | she is laughing | I called her | her eyes gleam | that is hers | she likes herself | |
| they (singular) | they are laughing | I called them | their eyes gleam | that is theirs | they like themself | |
| it | it is laughing | I called it | its eyes gleam | that is its | it likes itself | |
| one | one is laughing | I called one | one's eyes gleam | that is one's | one likes oneself | |
| they (plural) | they are laughing | I called them | their eyes gleam | that is theirs | they like themselves | |
| 'em | – | I called 'em | – | – | – | |
| Orthographic conventions for gender-neutral pronouns | ||||||
| she/he | she/he is laughing | I called him/her | her/his eyes gleam | that is his/hers | she/he likes her/himself | |
| s/he | s/he is laughing | I called him/rTemplate:Citation needed | her/is eyes gleam | that is hers/is | s/he likes her/himself | |
| Artificial and proposed epicene pronouns | ||||||
| e | Brewster, 1841<ref name="Baron 2020" /> | e is laughing | I called em | es eyes gleam | that is es | e likes emself |
| thon | Converse, 1884<ref>proposed in 1884 by American lawyer Charles Crozat Converse. Reference: Template:Cite web</ref> | thon is laughing | I called thon | thons eyes gleam | that is thons | thon likes thonself |
| e | Rogers, 1890<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> | e is laughing | I called em | es eyes gleam | that is es | e likes emself |
| ae | Lindsay, 1920Template:Citation needed | ae is laughing | I called aer | aer eyes gleam | that is aers | ae likes aerself |
| tey | Miller and Swift, 1971Template:Citation needed | tey is laughing | I called tem | ter eyes gleam | that is ters | tey likes temself |
| xe | Rickter, Template:Circa<ref>Template:Cite web A paper that uses and defines these pronouns.</ref> | xe is laughing | I called xem/xim | xyr/xis eyes gleam | that is xyrs/xis | xe likes xemself/ximself |
| te | Farrel, 1974Template:Citation needed | te is laughing | I called tir | tes eyes gleam | that is tes | te likes tirself |
| ey | Elverson, 1975<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> | ey is laughing | I called em | eir eyes gleam | that is eirs | ey likes emself |
| per | Piercy, 1979<ref>In Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time (1979), the people of the future (year 2137) use "per" or "person" as their sole singular third-person pronoun.</ref> | per is laughing | I called per | pers eyes gleam | that is pers | per likes perself |
| ve | Hulme, Template:Circa<ref>Proposed by New Zealand writer Keri Hulme some time in the 1980s. Also used by writer Greg Egan for non-gendered artificial intelligences and "asex" humans. Template:Cite book Template:Cite book</ref> |
ve is laughing | I called ver | vis eyes gleam | that is vis | ve likes verself |
| hu | Newborn, 1982<ref>Used in several college humanities texts published by Bandanna Books. Originated by editor Sasha Newborn in 1982.</ref>Template:Nonspecific | hu is laughing | I called hum | hus eyes gleam | that is hus | hu likes humself |
| E | Spivak, 1983<ref>Capitalized E, Eir, Eirs, Em. The change from ey to E means that, in speech, the Spivak subject pronoun would often be pronounced the same as he, since the h of he is not pronounced in unstressed positions.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> | e is laughing | I called em | eir eyes gleam | that is eirs | e likes emself |
| hes | Ching Hai, 1989<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> | hes is laughing | I called hirm | hiers eyes gleam | that is hiers | hes likes hirmself |
| ze, mer | Creel, 1997<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | ze is laughing | I called mer | zer eyes gleam | that is zers | ze likes zemself |
| ze, hir | Bornstein, 1998<ref>Example: Template:Cite book</ref> | ze is laughing | I called hir | hir eyes gleam | that is hirs | ze likes hirself |
| sie, hir | Hyde, 2001<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref> | sie is laughing | I called hir | hir eyes gleam | that is hirs | sie likes hirself |
| sey, seir, sem | Rogerson, 2013<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> | sey is laughing | I called sem | seir eyes gleam | that is seirs | sey likes semself |
| fae<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | fae is laughing | I called faer | faer eyes gleam | that is faers | fae likes faerself | |
| eh | Steinbach, 2018<ref>Named in domain ehshehe.com.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | eh is laughing | I called ehm | ehs eyes gleam | that is ehs | eh likes ehmself |
| thay | Gori Suture, 2022<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> | thay are laughing | I called thym | thayr eyes gleam | that is thayrs | thay like thymself |
Emergence of gender-neutral pronouns in languages with grammatical gender
[edit]French iel
[edit]Template:Main In 2021, the dictionary Le Petit Robert de la Langue Française added a third-person gender neutral pronoun to its lexicon: Template:Lang<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (plural Template:Lang). Although Petit Robert has added Template:Lang, there is no discussion in its entry regarding how the language, which uses a grammatical gender system in which every content word has a gender, should proceed with agreement.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
As reported in the New York Times, this merger of the third person masculine pronoun il 'he' and the third person feminine pronoun elle 'she' is used to refer to a person of any gender. It has caused controversy amongst both linguists and politicians who claim that the French language cannot be manipulated.<ref name="Cohen & Gallois 2021">Template:Cite news</ref> The dictionary takes the position that it is observing how the French language evolves, adding it as a point of reference. However, the Larousse (a prominent encyclopedia of the French language) disagrees, calling iel a "pseudo pronoun".<ref name="Cohen & Gallois 2021" />
Polish onu and ono
[edit]Template:Main The Polish language does not have officially recognized and standardized gender-neutral pronoun. The most popular neopronoun, created to address nonbinary people, is Template:Lang. It was originally created by science fiction and fantasy writer Jacek Dukaj, for his 2004 book Perfect Imperfection. From the surname of the author, this, and similar neopronouns created by him, are referred to as Template:Lang, and after term coined by him, the post-gender pronouns (Polish: zaimki postpłciowe).<ref name="zaimki1">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="zaimki2">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Some nonbinary Polish-speakers also use Template:Lang, which corresponds to the English it.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The use of Template:Lang as a gender-neutral pronoun was recommended in a grammar book in 1823.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | onu | ony |
| genitive | jenu / nu / nienu | ich / ich / nich |
| dative | wu | im |
| accusative | nu | ni |
| instrumental | num | nimi |
| locative | num | nich |
| <ref name="zaimki1" /><ref name="zaimki2" /> | ||
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| first person |
-um | –ałuśmy |
| second person |
–uś | –ałuście |
| third person |
–u | –ły |
| adjectives | –u | -y |
| <ref name="zaimki1" /><ref name="zaimki2" /> | ||
Swedish hen
[edit]Template:Main The Swedish language has a four-gender distinction for definite singular third-person pronouns:
- masculine singular han 'he'
- feminine singular hon 'she'
- common singular den 'it'
- neuter singular det 'it'
The indefinite/impersonal third person is gender-neutral, as is the plural third person:
- plural third person de 'they'
- man 'someone'
As for first-person and second-person pronouns, they are gender-neutral in both the singular and plural
- first person: singular jag; plural vi
- second-person: singular du; plural ni
On nouns, the neuter gender is marked by the definite singular suffixal article -t, whereas common gender is marked with the suffix with -n. The same distinction applies to the indefinite adjectival singular forms. For people and animals with specified gender, the masculine or feminine pronouns are used, but the nouns still take either neutral or common articles. There is no gender distinction in the plural.
In Swedish, the word hen was introduced generally in the 2000s as a complement to the gender-specific hon ("she") and han ("he"). It can be used when the gender of a person is not known or when it is not desirable to specify them as either a "she" or "he". The word was proposed by Rolf Dunås in 1966 and could be used occasionally, like in a guideline from the Swedish building council from 1980, authored by Rolf Reimers. Its origin may have been a combination of han and hon.
It was proposed again in 1994, with reference to the Finnish hän, similarly pronounced, a personal pronoun that is gender-neutral, since Finnish completely lacks grammatical gender. In 2009 it was included in Nationalencyklopedin. However, it did not receive widespread recognition until around 2010, when it began to be used in some texts, and provoked some media debates and controversy, but is included since 2015 in Svenska Akademiens ordlista, the most authoritative spelling dictionary of the Swedish language, by the Swedish Academy.<ref name="Benaissa">Template:Cite news</ref>
Template:As of, Swedish manuals of style treat hen as a neologism. Major newspapers like Dagens Nyheter have recommended against its usage, though some journalists still use it. The Swedish Language Council has not issued any general recommendations against the use of hen, but advises against the use of the object form henom ("her/him"); it instead recommends using hen as both the subject and object form. Hen has two basic usages: as a way to avoid a stated preference to either gender; or as a way of referring to individuals who are transgender, who prefer to identify themselves as belonging to a third gender or who reject the division of male/female gender roles on ideological grounds. Its entry will cover two definitions: as a reference to an individual's belonging to a third gender, or where the sex is not specified.<ref name="Benaissa" />
Traditionally, Swedish offers other ways of avoiding using gender-specific pronouns; e.g., "vederbörande" ("the referred person") and "man" ("one", as in "Man borde ..."/"One should ...") with its objective form "en" or alternatively "en" as both subjective and objective since "man"/"one" sounds the same as "man"/"male adult" although they are discernible through syntax. "Denna/Denne" ("this one or she/he") may refer to a non-gender-specific referent already or soon-to-be mentioned ("Vederbörande kan, om denne så vill, ..."/"The referent may, if he wishes, ..."). Because "denne" is objectively masculine, the use of the word to refer to anyone irrespective of gender is not recommended. One method is rewriting into the plural, as Swedish – like English – has only gender-neutral pronouns in the plural. Another method is writing the pronoun in the referent's grammatical gender ("Barnet får om det vill."/"The child is allowed to, if it wants to." The word "barn"/child is grammatically neuter, thus the use of the third-person neuter pronoun "det"); some nouns retain their traditional pronouns, e.g., "man"/"man" uses "han"/"he", and "kvinna"/"woman" uses "hon"/"she". While grammatically correct, using "den/det" to refer to human beings may sound as if the speaker regards the referenced human beings as objects, so "han"/"hon" is preferred, for example about children or work titles such as "föraren" ("driver") or "rörmokaren" ("plumber").
Norwegian hen
[edit]Template:More citations needed section As a continuation of earlier discussions along the same lines as well as the continuing uptake, the Language Council of Norway proposes the gender-neutral pronoun Template:Lang (from Swedish Template:Lang; compare Finnish Template:Lang) to be recognised officially.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Previously, the gender-neutral pronoun Template:Lang has been proposed to fill the gap between the third person pronouns Template:Lang ('she') and Template:Lang ('he').Template:Citation needed However, the usage of Template:Lang has not widely embraced, as it is rarely used, and even then only by limited special interest groups.Template:Citation needed A reason for the marginal interest in a neuter gender word is the constructed nature of the word, together with the fact that the word is homonymous with several older words both in official language and dialectal speech, such as Template:Lang ('the other') and Template:Lang ('beyond').Template:Citation needed One can also use Template:Lang or Template:Lang or Template:Lang (Template:Lang means 'one'). These three are considered impersonal.Template:Citation needed
Amongst LGBT interest groups the word hen is now in use after the Swedish implementation in 2010.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Failed verification
Emergence of gendered pronouns in languages without grammatical gender
[edit]Mandarin
[edit]Lack of gender contrasts in spoken language
[edit]Traditionally, the third person pronoun in Mandarin is gender-neutral. In spoken standard Mandarin, there is no gender distinction in personal pronouns: Template:Lang can mean 'he' or 'she' (or even 'it' for non-human objects). Although it is claimed that when the antecedent of the spoken pronoun Template:Lang is unclear, native speakers assume it is a male person,<ref name="Ettner">Template:Cite book</ref> no evidence is given to support this claim. Many studies instead demonstrate the opposite: Mandarin speakers do not differentiate pronoun genders in the composition of the preverbal message that guides grammatical encoding during language production.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Even proficient bilingual Mandarin-English learners do not process gender information in the conceptualizer.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> As a result, Mandarin speakers often mix up the gendered pronouns of European languages in speech.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Even if they seldom make other types of errors, native Mandarin speakers can make such pronoun errors when speaking in English. This is even the case after they have been living in an immersive environment and after having attained a relatively high English level.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Emergence of gender contrasts via orthography
[edit]Although spoken Mandarin remains ungendered, a specific written form for 'she' (Template:Lang Template:Lang) was created in the early twentieth century under the influence of European languages. In today's written Chinese, the same sound is written with different characters: Template:Lang (Template:Lang) for 'he', Template:Lang (Template:Lang) for 'she' and Template:Lang (Template:Lang) for 'it'. However, such distinction did not exist before the late 1910s. There was only Template:Lang (Template:Lang) as a general third person pronoun (he/she/it'), which did not specify gender or humanness.
In 1917, the influential poet and linguist Liu Bannong borrowed the Old Chinese graph Template:Lang (Template:Lang, with the radical Template:Lang Template:Lang which means 'female') into the written language to specifically represent 'she'. As a result, the old character Template:Lang (Template:Lang), which previously could also refer to females, has become sometimes restricted to meaning 'he' only in written texts. The character Template:Lang has the radical Template:Lang (Template:Lang) with means 'human', which also shows it originally was a generic term for people in general instead of a term for males, which should take the radical for male, Template:Lang (Template:Lang), like other Chinese characters that represent specifically male concepts.<ref name="Liu">Template:Cite book</ref>
The creation of gendered pronouns in Chinese orthography was part of the May Fourth Movement to modernize Chinese culture, and specifically an attempt to assert sameness between Chinese and European languages, which generally have gendered pronouns.<ref name="Ettner" /> The leaders of the movement also coined other characters, such as Template:Lang for objects, Template:Lang (radical: Template:Lang Template:Lang, "cow") for animals, and Template:Lang (radical: Template:Lang Template:Lang, 'spirit') for gods. Their pronunciations were all Template:Lang. The latter two have fallen out of use in mainland China.
Liu and other writers of that period tried to popularize a different pronunciation for the feminine pronoun, including Template:Lang from the Wu dialect and Template:Lang from a literary reading, but these efforts failed, and all forms of the third-person pronoun retain identical pronunciation. (This situation of identical pronunciation with split characters is present not only in Mandarin but also in many other varieties of Chinese.<ref name="Liu" />)
The Cantonese third-person-singular pronoun is Template:Lang (Template:Lang), and may refer to people of any gender. For a specifically female pronoun, some writers replace the person radical Template:Lang (Template:Lang) with the female radical Template:Lang (Template:Lang), forming the character Template:Lang (Template:Lang). However, this analogous variation to Template:Lang is neither widely accepted in standard written Cantonese nor grammatically or semantically required. Moreover, while the character Template:Lang (Template:Lang) has no meaning in classical Chinese, the character Template:Lang (Template:Lang) has a separate meaning unrelated to its dialectic use in standard or classical Chinese.<ref>Template:Cite web The entry for "Template:Lang" notes its use as a third-person pronoun in Cantonese: Template:Cite web But the entry for "Template:Lang" does not; it only gives the pronunciation Template:Lang and notes that it is used in place names: Template:Cite web</ref>
As of 2013, there is a recent trend on the Internet for people to write "TA" in Latin script, derived from the pinyin romanization of Chinese, as a gender-neutral pronoun.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
For second-person pronouns, Template:Lang is used for both genders. In addition, the character Template:Lang has sometimes been used as a female second-person pronoun in Taiwan and Hong Kong.Template:Romanization needed
Japanese
[edit]Emergence of gendered third-person forms
[edit]Pure personal pronouns do not exist in traditional Japanese, as pronouns are generally dropped. In addition, reference to a person is using their name with a suffix such as the gender-neutral Template:Lang added to it. For example:
'She (Ms. Saitō) came' would be Template:Lang (Template:Lang).
In modern Japanese, Template:Lang (Template:Lang) is the male and Template:Lang (Template:Lang) the female third-person pronouns. Historically, Template:Lang was a word in the demonstrative paradigm (i.e., a system involving demonstrative prefixes, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, Template:Lang (historical: Template:Lang), and Template:Lang), used to point to an object that is physically far but psychologically near. The feminine counterpart Template:Lang, on the other hand, is a combination of Template:Lang (adnominal (Template:Lang) version of Template:Lang) and Template:Lang ('woman'), coined for the translation of its Western equivalents. It was not until the Meiji period that Template:Lang and Template:Lang were commonly used as the masculine and feminine pronoun in the same way as their Western equivalents. Although their usage as the Western equivalent pronouns tends to be infrequent—because pronouns tend to be dropped—Template:Lang and Template:Lang are commonly used today to mean 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend' respectively.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Emergence of gendered first-person forms
[edit]First-person pronouns, Template:Lang, Template:Lang, and Template:Lang, while not explicitly carrying gender, can strongly imply gender based on inherent levels of politeness or formality as well as hierarchical connotations.<ref name="Okamoto & Shibato Smith 2004">Template:Cite book</ref> While Template:Lang and Template:Lang are traditionally characterized as masculine pronouns, Template:Lang is characterized as feminine. In addition, of the two masculine-leaning pronouns, Template:Lang is considered to be less masculine than Template:Lang and often connote a softer form of masculinity. When wishing to connote a sense of authority and confidence to their interlocutors, male speakers tend to use the first-person form Template:Lang.<ref name="Okamoto & Shibato Smith 2004" />
Notes
[edit]See also
[edit]- Epicenity
- Gender marking in job titles
- Gender neutrality in genderless languages
- Gender neutrality in languages with grammatical gender
- Generic antecedent
- Pronoun game
- Feminist language reform
- LGBT linguistics
Specific languages
[edit]- Gender neutrality in English
- Gender-neutral pronouns in Esperanto
- Gender neutrality in Spanish
- Gender neutrality in Portuguese
References
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- Template:Cite book (includes chapters on "she" for ships and generic he)
External links
[edit]- Gender-free Legal Writing
- The Epicene Pronouns: A Chronology of the Word That Failed (gender-neutral pronoun history)
- Template:Cite news
- Footnotes: pronouns
- On the Creation of "She " in Japanese
- Regender can translate webpages to use gender-neutral pronouns.
- Is there a gender-neutral substitute for "his or her"?
- Template:Cite web
- FGA: "xe", "xem", and "xyr" are sex-neutral pronouns and adjectives
Template:English gender-neutral pronouns Template:Gender studies Template:Lexical categories Template:Language pronouns