Gender-neutral pronouns in modern English
Authors: Yurkevich A.S. | |
Published in issue: #11(64)/2021 | |
DOI: 10.18698/2541-8009-2021-11-750 | |
Category: Humanities | Chapter: Social sciences |
|
Keywords: english, English pronouns, gender-neutral pronouns, linguistic political correctness, language neutral, gender neutrality, non-binary, linguistic sexism |
|
Published: 10.12.2021 |
The author investigated the complex of problems associated with changes in the system of nomination and the functioning of personal pronouns in the English language. Gender-neutral pronouns existing in modern English and their functioning are considered on examples from the works of modern mass culture. Seven different gender-neutral pronouns were analyzed. It is concluded that while the system of gender-neutral pronouns is just emerging, new gender-neutral pronouns have not yet become widespread, and the singular they pronoun is currently most widely used, since it has long been assimilated into the language.
References
[1] Zakharov V.P., Bogdanova S.Yu. Korpusnaya lingvistika [Corpus linguistics]. Irkutsk, IGLU Publ., 2011 (in Russ.).
[2] Remizova E.A. Tekstovye funktsii mestoimeniy v sovremennom angliyskom yazyke. Diss. kand. filol. nauk [Text functions of the pronouns in modern English language. Kand. philol. Scu. diss.]. Moscow, MPU Publ., 1999 (in Russ.).
[3] Smolyanskaya N.V., Krasnova E.V. The status of category of gender. Mezhdunarodnyy zhurnal eksperimental’nogo obrazovaniya, 2015, № 9, s. 55–57; URL: http://www.expeducation.ru/ru/article/view?id=8206 (in Russ.).
[4] Quirk R., Greenbaum S., Leech G. et al. A comprehensive grammar of the English language. Longman, 1985.
[5] Kirey-Sitnikova Ya. Grammaticheskiy rod i gendernye roli: teoreticheskie osnovaniya feministskogo yazykovogo aktivizma [Grammar gender and gender roles: theoretical basis of feministic language activism]. transcoalition.net: website. URL: https://www.transcoalition.net/feminist/ (accessed: 27.04.2020)
[6] Pershay A. Again on language sexism. Gendernyy zhurnal “Ya”, 2015, no. 1, pp. 32–34.
[7] Savateeva L.V. “Sexism” category in focus of linguistic political correctness. Vestnik Taganrogskogo instituta upravleniya i ekonomiki, 2008, no. 2, pp. 52–57 (in Russ.).
[8] Yurkevich A.S., Trufanova N.O. Gender-neutral pronouns in modern English. Nauka, tekhnologii i biznes. Sb. mat. II mezhvuz. zaochn. konf. aspirantov, soiskateley i molodykh uchenykh [Science, Technology and Business. Proc. II Interacademic Virtual Conf. of Post-Graduates, Candidates and Young Scientists]. Moscow, Bauman MSTU Publ., 2020, pp. 99–104 (in Russ.).
[9] Khellinger M. Kontrastivnaya feministskaya lingvistika. Feminizm i gendernye issledovaniya [Contrastive feministic linguistics. Feminism and gender studies]. Tver’, Tver. tsentr zhen. istorii i gendernykh issled. Publ., 1999 (in Russ.).
[10] Resources on personal pronouns: website. URL: https://www.mypronouns.org/ (accessed: 16.05.2020).
[11] ‘John Wick: Chapter 3’ star Asia Kate Dillon asked for their character to be non-binary. insider.com: website. URL: https://www.insider.com/john-wick-3-asia-kate-dillon-character-non-binary-2019-5 (accessed: 29.05.2020).