[Gala-l] summary of suggestions on pronouns

Tue Nov 28 13:26:37 UTC 2017

Hi everyone,

Here’s a summary of the responses I got to my query (for a student) about pronoun usage.

- Monica

MY ORIGINAL QUESTION:

I have a student who’s looking at the specific singular ‘they’. It took us a while to clarify exactly what he meant, so here’s a brief recap (examples from http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/gender-neutral-pronouns-singular-they):

1. General singular ‘they’ - when we don’t have a particular referent in mind
e.g. “Tell the next caller they won a car”

2. Specific singular ‘they’ - when we do have a particular referent in mind, but we’re observing a person’s pronoun preference
e.g.

And here’s another one. This time from a review of the TV show Billions.<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/arts/television/billions-season-2-episode-2-recap.html> There’s a character named Taylor whose preferred pronoun is they, so a sentence describing someone named Axe pitching an idea to Taylor reads like this:

Axe’s pitch to them shows a surprisingly progressive understanding of the value of workplace diversity.

The student wants to add a factor to the second type: when we have a particular referent in mind, but we don’t know their pronoun preference. It’s a subtle distinction, but I can see it as an added factor.

So my question is, does anyone know of literature on the second usage (with or without his added factor)? When he's done searches, he finds tons of stuff on the first kind, but almost nothing on the second (which isn’t surprising, since I think it’s a fairly new use).

Thanks for any suggestions!

RESPONSES:

Hi,
there is research done on the Swedish equivalent to singular they, hen, and it found that 41 % of the usage of hen was this second type, which they divided into "anonomous" and "unknown" hen. I attach the article with the findings. It is written in Swedish but you find the e-mailadresses to the two writers in the heading.
/Karin

Hi Monica.
Some of my colleagues at UBC have been working in this area:
https://asrw.arts.ubc.ca/research/faculty-research/how-do-you-wish-to-be-cited/

Best,

Kate

Hi Monica,

Sounds like your student might benefit from joining the Facebook groups Non-binary Linguistics Network<https://www.facebook.com/groups/nonbinarylinguistics/> or Queer Linguist(ic)s Network<https://www.facebook.com/groups/queerlinguistics>. There are plenty of people in those groups who could point to any relevant research. There’s definitely some on specific they, but I’m not sure about the subcategory you mention. Your student could search both groups for any posts on they and also post a question about it in either – they’re very friendly!

Your student might also be interested in a podcast made by James Spizzirro (a member of the Facebook groups), the first two episodes of which focus on singular they and grammatical gender. It’s called Queer Linguistics and is available on their WordPress site<https://queerlinguistics.tumblr.com/> and iTunes.

And another thing to look at is the programme and book of abstracts from Lavender Languages and Linguistics 24<http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/conference/fac-arts/english/lavlang24/index.aspx>, at which there was a lot of research on non-binary people. From memory I’m not sure if there were presentations on they, but there may well have been.

Kind regards,

Andy Law [pronouns<https://medium.com/trans-talk/faq-on-pronouns-trans-people-b501cb1f668f>: they/them/their]

Hi Monica,

I highly recommend Lal Zimman's article in the inaugural issue of the Journal of Language and Discrimination, "Transgender language reform: Some challenges and strategies for promoting trans-affirming, gender-inclusive language":

https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/JLD/article/view/33139

Best,

Mary

Dear Monica,

I personally can’t provide much help with finding resources for this, but I wanted to let you know that you (or your student) should certainly look into the Queer Linguist(ics) Network on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1149961031730609&ref=br_rs

There you will find exactly the kind of discussion (and resources) that I think are required in order to tackle questions of specific singular “they”.

Best wishes, and I hope this helps,

Joe

Monica,

Here's another use which you may already have considered: when we have a particular referent in mind, but we don't want to state their gender.  This was a common usage in the closeted/semi-closeted LGBT community as recently as the 2000's and shows up in contexts like "I had a date this Friday, but they cancelled at the last minute" or "one of my best friends is visiting this weekend.  I'm really looking forward to seeing them again."  At the time, what struck me as interesting is that there was no plausible situation in which the speaker would not know the gender identity of the referent, but the singular generic interpretation of "they" was so ubiquitous that its use in these context went unremarked.

BTW, my own feeling is that your student's added factor puts the use of "they" back into a "singular generic" category in that, while the referent is known, the gender identity associated with the referent is unknown (and I suppose that pragmatically, we'd need a reason to think that the traditional gender identities might not be appropriate/preferred in this case) and calls for a generic pronoun, rather than a specific pronoun.

Just some thoughts on one of my personal favorite semantic topics.

Ken

Hi Monica,

I would add another factor as well: when we have a particular referent in mind but don't know their gender. One example would be when talking about a baby. Good luck on finding relevant literature, I wish I could be more helpful with that.

Best,

Jessica

Hi Prof. Macaulay,

This is an interesting phenomenon.  Your student has probably thought of this already, but another possible usage is generic -- with the individual standing in for a larger kind.  We've seen this a lot in parent-child speech (e.g., pointing to a single squirrel and saying, 'They eat acorns'), although sometimes it's unclear if a particular usage is gender-neutral or generic.
  Unfortunately I'm unable to help with your question about a relevant research literature on the gender-neutral usage.
Best,
Susan Gelman

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