23.665, Diss: Applied Ling/Socioling: Paterson: 'The Use and Prescription ...'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-23-665. Wed Feb 08 2012. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 23.665, Diss: Applied Ling/Socioling: Paterson: 'The Use and Prescription ...'

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1)
Date: 01-Feb-2012
From: Laura Paterson [l.l.paterson at leeds.ac.uk]
Subject: The Use and Prescription of Epicene Pronouns: A corpus-based approach to generic he and singular they in British English


-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:57:51
From: Laura Paterson [l.l.paterson at leeds.ac.uk]
Subject: The Use and Prescription of Epicene Pronouns: A corpus-based approach to generic he and singular they in British English

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Institution: Loughborough University 
Program: Department of English and Drama 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2011 

Author: Laura L. Paterson

Dissertation Title: The Use and Prescription of Epicene Pronouns: A
corpus-based approach to generic he and singular they in
British English 

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Language Acquisition
                     Sociolinguistics
                     Text/Corpus Linguistics


Dissertation Director(s):
Chris Christie
Deborah Cameron
Elaine Hobby
Arianna Maiorani

Dissertation Abstract:

In English the personal pronouns are morphologically marked for grammatical
number, whilst the third-person singular pronouns are also obligatorily
marked for gender. As a result, the use of any singular animate antecedent
coindexed with a third-person pronoun forces a choice between he and she,
whether or not the biological sex of the intended referent is known. This
forced choice of gender, and the corresponding lack of a gender-neutral
third-person singular pronoun where gender is not formally marked, is the
primary focus of this thesis. I compare and contrast the use of the two
main candidates for epicene status, singular they and generic he, which are
found consistently opposed in the wider literature. 

Using corpus-based methods I analyse current epicene usage in written
British English, and investigate which epicene pronouns are given to
language-acquiring children in their L1 input. I also consider current
prescriptions on epicene usage in grammar texts published post-2000 and
investigate whether there is any evidence that language-external factors
impact upon epicene choice. The synthesis of my findings with the wider
literature on epicene pronouns leads me to the conclusion that, despite the
restrictions imposed on the written pronoun paradigm evident in grammatical
prescriptivism, singular they is the epicene pronoun of British English. 





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