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Palgrave Macmillan

British Pronoun Use, Prescription, and Processing

Linguistic and Social Influences Affecting 'They' and 'He'

  • Book
  • © 2014

Overview

Authors:
  1. Laura Louise Paterson

    1. University of Hull, UK
      University of Liverpool, UK

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Laura Louise Paterson
    Pages 1-8

  3. Exploring Epicene Pronouns in History

    • Laura Louise Paterson
    Pages 9-44

  4. Epicenes in the Twenty-First Century

    • Laura Louise Paterson
    Pages 45-75

  5. Epicenes and Social Movements

    • Laura Louise Paterson
    Pages 76-112

  6. Prescriptions, Standards, and Epicenes

    • Laura Louise Paterson
    Pages 113-142

  7. Accounting for Epicene Choice

    • Laura Louise Paterson
    Pages 143-167

  8. Conclusion

    • Laura Louise Paterson
    Pages 168-173

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 174-192
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Keywords

About this book

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.

Reviews

"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

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Hull, UK

    Laura Louise Paterson

  • University of Liverpool, UK

    Laura Louise Paterson

About the author

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.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: British Pronoun Use, Prescription, and Processing

  • Book Subtitle: Linguistic and Social Influences Affecting 'They' and 'He'

  • Authors: Laura Louise Paterson

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137332738

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave Language & Linguistics Collection, Education (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2014

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-33272-1Published: 25 July 2014

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-46186-8Published: 01 January 2014

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-33273-8Published: 25 July 2014

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: X, 192

  • Topics: Sociolinguistics, Gender Studies, Feminism

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