Generic antecedent
Encyclopedia
Generic antecedents are representatives of classes, referred to in ordinary language
by another word (most often a pronoun
), in a situation in which gender
is typically unknown or irrelevant. These mostly arise in generalization
s and are particularly common in abstract
, theoretical
or strategic
discourse
. Examples (with the antecedent in boldface and the referring pronoun in italics) include "readers of Wikipedia appreciate their encyclopedia", "the customer who spends in this market", and "each of the compounds that have been analysed".
The question of appropriate style for using pronouns to refer to such generic antecedents in the English language
became politicized
in the 1970s, and remains a matter of substantial dispute.
in nouns, normally masculine, but sometimes feminine, forms of pronouns are used for the generic reference, in what is called the generic usage of the pronoun. The context makes the generic intent of the usage clear in communication.
Unless there is reason to believe the speaker thinks ambitious academics are always female, the use of she in this sentence must be interpreted as a generic use. Traditionally in English the singular generic pronoun has been the otherwise masculine he, but in recent decades a strand of thought has held that such usage subtly biases the listener to assume the antecedent is masculine; so various alternatives given later in this article have been proposed.
both the singular and plural pronouns in the third person are marked for grammatical gender, and the antecedent always has grammatical gender. The masculine form of "they", ils, is always used when referring to a plural and grammatically masculine antecedent, while for plural antecedents that are grammatically feminine the feminine form elles of "they" is used. Likewise, in the singular the third person pronoun il is used to refer to grammatically masculine antecedents and elle is used to refer to grammatically feminine antecedents. Thus, for both generic and non-generic antecedents, the natural gender of the antecedent, whether known or unknown, is irrelevant, as the deciding factor for the choice of a referring pronoun is the grammatical gender of the antecedent.
Some French speakers advocate the use of created gender-free pronouns, such as illes or els for ils et elles ("they (masculine) and they (feminine)") and celleux or ceulles for celles et ceux ("those (feminine) and those (masculine)").
form of writing Mandarin in the Latin alphabet, there is no distinction between "he" and "she" (tā in each case), nor is there a distinction between "they (masculine)" and "they (feminine)" (tāmen in each case). However, when Mandarin is written in characters, a gender distinction is made: tā is written as 他 or 她 for "he" or "she" respectively, with -men (们) added for the plural. For a plural generic antecedent such as "people (in general)", the referring pronoun will always be written as the masculine plural form unless the generic group is known to be inherently female (as in "women (in general)"), in which case the feminine form is used. For a singular generic antecedent such as "someone", the referring pronoun is always written as the masculine singular form unless the generic antecedent is known to be inherently female (as in "(an unspecified) woman").
When the antecedent is a specific person (whose gender is therefore known), the correct referring pronoun is either he or she, depending on the person's gender. When the antecedent is a specific group of two or more people, the pronoun they is used, again without any difficulty arising. And when the antecedent is generic and plural, again the pronoun they is used and is not problematic, because they is not gender-specific.
But difficulty arises in choosing a singular pronoun to refer to a single, unspecified human (whose gender is variable, as the reference is equally to a hypothetical male or a hypothetical female). This article discusses this choice.
It is the overlap of generic use with gender role
stereotyping
that has led to controversy in English.
In these examples, some speakers might mean that all nurses are female, or that all bosses are male, while others might intend the pronouns as generic and hence gender-inspecific. Ambiguity arises from the possibility that the listener might interpret the meaning differently from what the speaker intended.
What has become controversial among users of English is the choice of pronoun to refer back to a generalized, and hence generic, singular antecedent such as any parent, or every parent. In contrast, since plural generic antecedents such as parents must be referred to by the plural pronoun they, and since in English they is gender-inspecific, no controversy arises for a plural generic antecedent. Examples of accepted, disputed, and impossible constructions in English include:
English guidelines before the 1980s supported the use of he as a singular pronoun that can refer to both men and women (generic usage). Many recent style guides discourage generic constructions on political grounds. Some writers prefer to alternate between male and female generic usage to provide clarity without the appearance of bias. Other speakers intentionally use female generic forms as a political or cultural statement against the conventional practice of generic use of the masculine form.
There is historical precedent for the third option as well as popular contemporary usage. However, there are contemporary, as well as historical, style guide
s that discourage this option.
The indefinite personal pronoun, one
, is suitably singular and inspecific with respect to gender; but it can take only "one" as an antecedent.
argue from the valid use of they in certain contexts, to making it valid or even mandatory in all. Other prescriptivists argue ideologically that generic he should be proscribed. Both these points of view have found many followers; however, they generally do not accurately describe the usage or rationale of the wide range of options common in the English language.
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
by another word (most often a pronoun
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
), in a situation in which gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
is typically unknown or irrelevant. These mostly arise in generalization
Generalization
A generalization of a concept is an extension of the concept to less-specific criteria. It is a foundational element of logic and human reasoning. Generalizations posit the existence of a domain or set of elements, as well as one or more common characteristics shared by those elements. As such, it...
s and are particularly common in abstract
Abstraction (sociology)
Sociological Abstraction refers to the varying levels at which theoretical concepts can be understood. This idea is very similar to the philosophical understanding of abstraction. There are two basic levels of sociological abstraction: sociological concepts and operationalized sociological...
, theoretical
Theory
The English word theory was derived from a technical term in Ancient Greek philosophy. The word theoria, , meant "a looking at, viewing, beholding", and referring to contemplation or speculation, as opposed to action...
or strategic
Strategy
Strategy, a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. In military usage strategy is distinct from tactics, which are concerned with the conduct of an engagement, while strategy is concerned with how different engagements are linked...
discourse
Discourse
Discourse generally refers to "written or spoken communication". The following are three more specific definitions:...
. Examples (with the antecedent in boldface and the referring pronoun in italics) include "readers of Wikipedia appreciate their encyclopedia", "the customer who spends in this market", and "each of the compounds that have been analysed".
The question of appropriate style for using pronouns to refer to such generic antecedents in the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
became politicized
Politicized issue
A politicized issue or hot-button issue is a social, economic, theological, spiritual, scientific or legal issue which has become a political issue, as a result of deliberate action or otherwise, whereby people become politically active over that issue....
in the 1970s, and remains a matter of substantial dispute.
Treatment in various languages
Many languages share the following issue with English: the generic antecedent is a representative individual of a class, whose gender is unknown or irrelevant, but pronouns are gender-specific. In languages such as English that distinguish natural gender in pronouns but not grammatical genderGrammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
in nouns, normally masculine, but sometimes feminine, forms of pronouns are used for the generic reference, in what is called the generic usage of the pronoun. The context makes the generic intent of the usage clear in communication.
- Example: An ambitious academic will publish as soon as she can.
Unless there is reason to believe the speaker thinks ambitious academics are always female, the use of she in this sentence must be interpreted as a generic use. Traditionally in English the singular generic pronoun has been the otherwise masculine he, but in recent decades a strand of thought has held that such usage subtly biases the listener to assume the antecedent is masculine; so various alternatives given later in this article have been proposed.
French
In FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
both the singular and plural pronouns in the third person are marked for grammatical gender, and the antecedent always has grammatical gender. The masculine form of "they", ils, is always used when referring to a plural and grammatically masculine antecedent, while for plural antecedents that are grammatically feminine the feminine form elles of "they" is used. Likewise, in the singular the third person pronoun il is used to refer to grammatically masculine antecedents and elle is used to refer to grammatically feminine antecedents. Thus, for both generic and non-generic antecedents, the natural gender of the antecedent, whether known or unknown, is irrelevant, as the deciding factor for the choice of a referring pronoun is the grammatical gender of the antecedent.
Some French speakers advocate the use of created gender-free pronouns, such as illes or els for ils et elles ("they (masculine) and they (feminine)") and celleux or ceulles for celles et ceux ("those (feminine) and those (masculine)").
Mandarin Chinese
In spoken Mandarin Chinese, and in the pinyinPinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
form of writing Mandarin in the Latin alphabet, there is no distinction between "he" and "she" (tā in each case), nor is there a distinction between "they (masculine)" and "they (feminine)" (tāmen in each case). However, when Mandarin is written in characters, a gender distinction is made: tā is written as 他 or 她 for "he" or "she" respectively, with -men (们) added for the plural. For a plural generic antecedent such as "people (in general)", the referring pronoun will always be written as the masculine plural form unless the generic group is known to be inherently female (as in "women (in general)"), in which case the feminine form is used. For a singular generic antecedent such as "someone", the referring pronoun is always written as the masculine singular form unless the generic antecedent is known to be inherently female (as in "(an unspecified) woman").
Gender in English pronouns
If an antecedent refers to a thing, either specific or generic, rather than a person, the appropriate pronoun to refer back to it is it, and no difficulty arises. Likewise, if the antecedent is more than one thing, again either specific or generic, the pronoun they is used to refer back to them, and again no difficulty arises.When the antecedent is a specific person (whose gender is therefore known), the correct referring pronoun is either he or she, depending on the person's gender. When the antecedent is a specific group of two or more people, the pronoun they is used, again without any difficulty arising. And when the antecedent is generic and plural, again the pronoun they is used and is not problematic, because they is not gender-specific.
But difficulty arises in choosing a singular pronoun to refer to a single, unspecified human (whose gender is variable, as the reference is equally to a hypothetical male or a hypothetical female). This article discusses this choice.
It is the overlap of generic use with gender role
Gender role
Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time...
stereotyping
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
that has led to controversy in English.
- A nurse should ensure she gets adequate rest.
- A police officer should maintain his fitness.
- A dancer should watch her diet carefully.
- A boss should treat his staff well.
In these examples, some speakers might mean that all nurses are female, or that all bosses are male, while others might intend the pronouns as generic and hence gender-inspecific. Ambiguity arises from the possibility that the listener might interpret the meaning differently from what the speaker intended.
Approaches taken in English
Speakers of all languages use words both to make distinctions and to generalize:- Example of distinction: My mother thinks…, but my father says....
- Example of generalization: Parents believe....
- Example of generalization: Any [or Every] parent believes....
What has become controversial among users of English is the choice of pronoun to refer back to a generalized, and hence generic, singular antecedent such as any parent, or every parent. In contrast, since plural generic antecedents such as parents must be referred to by the plural pronoun they, and since in English they is gender-inspecific, no controversy arises for a plural generic antecedent. Examples of accepted, disputed, and impossible constructions in English include:
-
All people get hungry, so they eat. Acceptable (All people is plural.) -
All people get hungry, so she eats. Incorrect (different meaning from first sentence) -
Each one gets thirsty, so he drinks. Disputed (Is he generic, or are all members of the group male?) - Each one gets thirsty, so they drink. Disputed by some, but long in use (by ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, for example); condemned by some older sources, such as The Elements of StyleThe Elements of StyleThe Elements of Style , also known as Strunk & White, by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, is a prescriptive American English writing style guide comprising eight "elementary rules of usage", ten "elementary principles of composition", "a few matters of form", a list of forty-nine "words and...
, but endorsed by The Chicago Manual of StyleThe Chicago Manual of StyleThe Chicago Manual of Style is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 16 editions have prescribed writing and citation styles widely used in publishing...
and most modern style guides. - Each one gets thirsty, so he or she drinks—Awkward (especially if used repeatedly) and recommended against by the Chicago Manual of Style, et al.
- When a person is tired, she sleeps. Disputed (Is she specific or generic?)
- When a person is tired, it sleeps. Incorrect (Pronouns for objects cannot be used to describe people.)
English guidelines before the 1980s supported the use of he as a singular pronoun that can refer to both men and women (generic usage). Many recent style guides discourage generic constructions on political grounds. Some writers prefer to alternate between male and female generic usage to provide clarity without the appearance of bias. Other speakers intentionally use female generic forms as a political or cultural statement against the conventional practice of generic use of the masculine form.
Modern solutions
Speakers ideologically opposed to gender role stereotyping often use one of the following strategies.- A boss should treat her staff well. (Use of the pronoun opposite to expected gender)
- Bosses should treat their staff well. (Making the antecedent plural, thus requiring the use of a plural pronoun, which in English is not gender-specific)
- A boss should treat their staff well. (Use of singular theySingular theySingular they is the use of they to refer to an entity that is not plural, or not necessarily plural. Though singular they is widespread in everyday English and has a long history of usage, debate continues about its acceptability...
, incorrect according to many sources, especially older or traditional ones, but accepted by later editions of the Chicago Manual of Style) - A boss should treat eir staff well. (Rare use of a Spivak pronounSpivak pronounThe Spivak pronouns are a proposed set of gender-neutral pronouns in English popularized by LambdaMOO based on pronouns used by Michael Spivak. Though not in widespread use, they have been employed in gender-neutral language by some people who dislike the more common alternatives "he/she" or...
; also see gender-neutral pronouns.)
There is historical precedent for the third option as well as popular contemporary usage. However, there are contemporary, as well as historical, style guide
Style guide
A style guide or style manual is a set of standards for the writing and design of documents, either for general use or for a specific publication, organization or field...
s that discourage this option.
Other alternatives
Options other than generic pronouns, rephrasing in the plural, or using they can be well suited to some contexts, but problematic in others.- A boss should treat her or his staff well. (Issues: cumbersome if overused, have to place genders in an order.)
- If (s)he does, it is good. (Issue: written option only.)
- Thon will be happy and so will they. (Issue: none of the invented pronouns – thon, xe, and many others – have been accepted into the language.)
The indefinite personal pronoun, one
One (pronoun)
One is a pronoun in the English language. It is a gender-neutral, third-person singular pronoun, commonly used in English prose...
, is suitably singular and inspecific with respect to gender; but it can take only "one" as an antecedent.
- One takes care of one's own.
Political opinions
Some modern prescriptivistsLinguistic prescription
In linguistics, prescription denotes normative practices on such aspects of language use as spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and syntax. It includes judgments on what usages are socially proper and politically correct...
argue from the valid use of they in certain contexts, to making it valid or even mandatory in all. Other prescriptivists argue ideologically that generic he should be proscribed. Both these points of view have found many followers; however, they generally do not accurately describe the usage or rationale of the wide range of options common in the English language.
See also
- Donkey pronounDonkey pronounA donkey pronoun is a pronoun that is bound in semantics but not syntax.Some writers prefer the term donkey anaphora, since it is the referential aspects and discourse or syntactic context that are of interest to researchers . The terms d-type or e-type pronoun are also used, mutually exclusively,...
- EpiceneEpiceneEpicene is an adjective for loss of gender distinction, often specific loss of masculinity. It includes:* effeminacy — a man with characteristics that are traditionally feminine...
- Generic mood
- Generic youGeneric youIn English grammar and in particular in casual English, generic you or indefinite you is the pronoun you in its use in referring to an unspecified person, as opposed to its use as the second person pronoun.-In English:...
- Indefinite pronounIndefinite pronounAn indefinite pronoun is a pronoun that refers to one or more unspecified beings, objects, or places.-List of English indefinite pronouns:Note that many of these words can function as other parts of speech too, depending on context...
- MarkednessMarkednessMarkedness is a specific kind of asymmetry relationship between elements of linguistic or conceptual structure. In a marked-unmarked relation, one term of an opposition is the broader, dominant one...
- Quantificational variability effectQuantificational variability effectQuantificational variability effect is the intuitive equivalence of certain sentences with quantificational adverbs and sentences without these, but with quantificational determiner phrases in argument position instead....
External links
- Helge Lødrup. 'Norwegian Anaphors without Visible Binders'. Journal of Germanic Linguistics 19 (2007): 1–22. Available at http://journals.cambridge.org.
- Anna Pycha, Constance Milbrath and Stephen Eyre. 'Anaphora in African-American English'. Oakland: Linguistics Society of America, 2005.
- Jeffrey T. Runner and Elsi Kaiser. 'Binding in Picture Noun Phrases: Implications for Binding Theory'. In Proceedings of the HPSG05 Conference. Edited by Stefan Müller. Lisbon: CSLI Publications, 2005.
- Marta Luján. 'Determiners as Modified Pronouns'. Círculo de lingüística aplicada a la comunicación 9 (2002).
Literature
- Carlson, Greg. Reference to Kinds in English. Ph.D. Thesis. University of Massachusetts AmherstUniversity of Massachusetts AmherstThe University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...
, 1977. - De Swart, H. '(In)definites and genericity'. In Quantifiers, Deduction and Context. Edited by M. Kanazawa and others. Stanford: CSLI: 171–199.
- Wilkinson, Karina. Studies in the Semantics of Generic Noun Phrases. Ph.D. Thesis. University of Massachusetts AmherstUniversity of Massachusetts AmherstThe University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...
, 1991.