[Lingtyp] Query re pronoun inventories

[Rikker Dockum]

Dear all,

Using the Global Gender Gap Index, Prewitt-Freilino, Caswell and Laakso 2011
<https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-011-0083-5> found that
countries with gendered pronouns have less gender equality. However, they
only coded for one language per country, and obviously country != language.
In couple of years ago Claire Moore-Cantwell (I was a TA) had students in a
cogsci class respond to this paper, and divided up the task of identifying
and coding GGGI data for the 5 most populous languages per country, then
each student wrote a response based on the aggregated data. My recollection
is that the effect went away, but then it was not a serious statistical
analysis, either.

Responding to Ian's comments on Thai (which is often classed as a 'natural
gender' pronoun system but has no grammatical gender), for non-binary
gender use, Pavadee Saisuwan 2015
<http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190210366.001.0001/acprof-9780190210366-chapter-10>
found that transgender women in Thailand use feminine pronouns much more
than cisgendered women, and for different reasons. But the sociolinguistics
of cisgendered pronoun use is fuzzier than past work has documented. Use of
female 1SG 'chan' by cisgendered straight men is utterly commonplace
nowadays--just watch a prime time soap for copious examples. It was never
exclusively feminine, really. Lately I also see the male 1SG 'phom' used on
social media by young women among their friends (perhaps jocular, and maybe
not so widespread yet).

Hope that helps,
Rikker

--
Rikker Dockum
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Linguistics
Yale University


On Sun, Feb 25, 2018 at 10:38 AM Joo Ian <ian.joo at outlook.com> wrote:

> Dear Spike,
>
> The only society I'm familiar with where the third gender is widely
> acknowledged is the Thai society, and Thai pronoun are quite binary.
> Some pronouns are exclusively used for men (like "phom") and some
> exclusively for women ("rao" as the 1st pronoun). "Chan" is largely a
> female 1sg pronoun but I've seen some men use it in certain contexts (such
> as in pop songs). In sum, there are pronouns that are more masculin and
> some are more feminine, and I would view the whole schema as largely binary.
>
> From Taipei,
> Ian Joo
> http://ianjoo.academia.edu
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of
> Spike Gildea <spike at uoregon.edu>
> *Sent:* Sunday, February 25, 2018 11:29:04 PM
> *To:* lingtyp
> *Subject:* [Lingtyp] Query re pronoun inventories
>
> I have been contacted by an undergraduate student who is claiming that
> gender binary pronouns (masculine, feminine, maybe a neuter) are driven by
> cultural perspectives that limit the option — i.e., if your culture only
> recognizs two genders, that makes your pronouns binary, too. The question I
> asked is what about those cultures with three or four genders (as written
> up in National Geographic last year)? Do any of them have multiple genders
> in their personal pronouns, or are they just binary or even non-gendered?
> Any information and/or references would be welcome!
>
> Best,
> Spike
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