British Pronoun Use, Prescription, and Processing

This study considers the use of they and he for generic reference in post-2000 written British English. The analysis is framed by a consideration of language-internal factors, such as syntactic agreement, and language-external factors, which include traditional grammatical prescriptivism and the language reforms resulting from second-wave feminism.

"Laura Louise Paterson's book entitled British Pronoun Use, Prescription, and Processing gives a very compelling, lucid and in-depth analysis of the term epicene pronoun, which is defined as a pronoun that does not convey gender or sex information, and is coindexed with a singular noun phrase referring to an animate being." - Masculinities Journal

Autorentext

Laura Louise Paterson is a Teaching Fellow in English Language at The University of Leeds, UK. Her previous works include a diachronic study of generic he and singular they and an analysis of the English Language element of the UK National Curriculum. Her forthcoming publications focus on children's pronouns and online sociolinguistic networks.

Inhalt
Introduction 1. Exploring Epicene Pronouns in History 2. Epicenes in the Twenty-First Century 3. Epicenes and Social Movements 4. Prescriptions, Standards, and Epicenes 5. Accounting for Epicene Choice Conclusion Glossary