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"Singular" they is a popular, non-technical expression for uses of the pronoun they (and its inflected forms) when plurality is not required by the context. In Linguistics and Grammar, a pronoun is a Pro-form that substitutes for a (including a noun phrase consisting of a single Noun) with or In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice The Chicago Manual of Style notes: "On the one hand, it is unacceptable to a great many reasonable readers to use the generic masculine pronoun ('he' in reference to no one in particular). The Chicago Manual of Style (abbreviated in writing as CMS or CMOS or verbally as Chicago) is a Style guide for American English On the other hand, it is unacceptable to a great many readers either to resort to nontraditional gimmicks to avoid the generic masculine (by using 'he/she' or 's/he. ' for example) or to use 'they' as a kind of singular pronoun. "[1]

"Singular" they does, in fact, remain morphologically and syntactically plural (it still takes plural forms of verbs). Morphology is the field of Linguistics that studies the internal structure of words In Linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek grc συν- syn-, "together" and grc τάξις táxis, "arrangement" is the However, it is often semantically indeterminate in number. More technically, these uses can be described as generic or epicene they.

Contents

Summary

Generic they has indeterminate number:

(Their can be understood equally well as referring to each man considered one at a time, or to all of them collectively. In the GNU Compiler Collection, GENERIC is an intermediate representation common to all the front-ends of GCC William Shakespeare ( baptised The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare 's earliest plays believed to have been written between 1589 and 1594 )

Epicene they has indeterminate gender:

"A person can’t help their birth," Rosalind replied. Epicene is an Adjective (sometimes substantive) for loss of Gender distinction often specific loss of Masculinity. — Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848)

(The relevant person here is Becky Sharp. William Makepeace Thackeray (ˈθækərɪ 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863 was an English Novelist of the 19th century Vanity Fair A Novel without a Hero is a Novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, first published in 1847-48 that satirizes society in early Becky Sharp is an American film released in 1935 and directed by Rouben Mamoulian. Thackeray has Rosalind using their as a polite circumlocution, perhaps avoiding generic he associated with a specific woman. Circumlocution (also called periphrasis, circumduction, circumvolution, periphrase, or ambage) is an ambiguous or roundabout )

In neither case is "singular" they unambiguously a semantic or morpho-syntactic singular. What it actually agrees with is the plurality implicit in the indeterminacy of generic antecedents. Generic antecedents are representatives of classes indicated by a Reference in ordinary Language (most often a Pronoun) where Gender is typically

This is explained by David Lewis' analysis of an aspect of the logic of the semantics of natural language,[2] now called quantificational variability effect (QVE). David Kellogg Lewis ( September 28, 1941  &ndash October 14, 2001) is considered to have been one of the leading philosophers of the latter Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference. Semantics is the study of meaning in communication The word derives from Greek σημαντικός ( semantikos) "significant" from In the Philosophy of language, a natural language (or ordinary language) is a Language that is spoken or written in phonemic-alphabetic or phonemically-related Quantificational variability effect (QVE is the intuitive equivalence of certain sentences with quantificational adverbs (Q-adverbs and sentences without these but with quantificational [3] Broader research in the area is still active, under the name donkey pronouns. A donkey pronoun is a pronoun that is bound in Semantics but not Syntax. [4]

In this kind of analysis, "singular" they in English is typically an example of a semantically bound variable,[5] rather than a simple referential pronoun. In Mathematics, and in other disciplines involving Formal languages including Mathematical logic and Computer science, a free variable is a [6] It is most clearly evident in the special case of distributive constructions,[7] where the preference many languages show for singular pronouns probably gives rise to the singular in "singular" they. [8]

Steven Pinker proposes the word they be considered to be a pair of "homonyms" — two different words with the same spelling and sound. Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18 1954 is a prominent Canadian - American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and author In linguistics a homonym is one of a group of words that share the same pronunciation but have different meanings and are usually spelled differently [9]

This would be analogous to a language like Basque, which uses the word nork both as an indeterminate pronoun meaning "who" and also as a marker in distributive constructions. Basque ( native name: euskara) is the Language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain

Basque has two ways of expressing universal distributive quantifications: (i) lexically, through the quantifier bakoitz 'each'; (ii) configurationally, through the construction exemplified in (1).

(1) Nork/zeinek bere ama ikusi du
who-erg/which-erg his/her mother seen has
'Everyone saw his/her mother'

In (1), an indeterminate pronoun takes on a universal distributive value. Such a value is not a lexical property of the relevant indeterminate pronouns. [10]

Basque is far from the only example of this. Kuroda considers it typical of east Asian languages, Japanese and Korean in particular. In Formal language theory, a grammar is in Kuroda normal form Iff all production rules are of the form AB &rarr CD or [11] Yet other languages have even more particular ways of expressing distribution and quantification. Quantification has two distinct meanings In Mathematics and Empirical science, it refers to human acts known as Counting and Measuring Sumerian, structurally similar to Basque, uses a nominal suffix, dedli, to indicate "each individual". Sumerian ( " native tongue " was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC [12]

Technical terms

Distribution

Distributive constructions are those which apply a single idea to all entities of a group, hence involving both singular and plural ideas. They are typically marked in English by words like each and every. The simplest examples are applied to groups of two, and use words like either and or. Thorough analysis of distribution requires treatment of negation. [13] Hence, the Shakespeare quote above is semantically distributive, because there's not a man is logically equivalent to every man does not. Since distributive constructions apply an idea relevant to each individual in the group, rather than to the group as a whole, they are most often conceived of as singular, and singular pronouns are used.

— John Ray, A Collection of English Proverbs, 1670
originally from Plutarch, Moralia, c. John Ray ( November 29, 1627 &ndash January 17, 1705) was an English naturalist, sometimes referred to as the Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus ( Greek: Μέστριος Πλούταρχος c 95 AD, regarding the death of Euripides

However, English is typical of many languages that show ambivalence in this regard. Euripides ( Ancient Greek:) (ca 480 BC–406 BC was the last of the three great tragedians of classical Athens (the other two being Aeschylus Because distribution also requires a group with more than one member, plural forms are sometimes used. The Shakespeare quote is probably an example of such a usage. The alternative would be that he intended epicene they in agreement with generic man, including women.

Many clear examples of the plural being used in other languages, and coming into English by translation, are found in the King James Version of the Bible, which attempted very literal translation. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin The fact that singular forms are, nonetheless, more natural in distributive constructions is inadvertently demonstrated by a website that, not having researched the original languages, unadvisedly assumed a singular interpretation of they in translations of plurals in the original. [14]

English is typical of many languages because it forms distributives with pronouns and marks for singular and plural. These languages demonstrate a preference for singular pronouns but attest plurals in a substantial minority of cases. Both forms being comprehensible to native speakers, usage depends on context, clarity, style and logic (for logic, see below).

Strunk and White's The Elements of Style notes both uses. The Elements of Style ( Strunk & White) is an American English Writing Style guide.

“ A common inaccuracy is the use of the plural pronoun when the antecedent is a distributive expression such as each, each one, everybody, every one, many a man, which, though implying more than one person, requires the pronoun to be in the singular. Similar to this, but with even less justification, is the use of the plural pronoun with the antecedent anybody, any one, somebody, some one, the intention being either to avoid the awkward he or she, or to avoid committing oneself to either. Some bashful speakers even say, A friend of mine told me that they . . . "[15] ”

This is a semantic assessment (note the words "inaccuracy", "implying", "requires", "justification" and "intention"),[15] rather than a syntactic linguistic prescription (as some have, rather loosely, claimed). In Linguistics, prescription can refer both to the codification and the enforcement of rules governing how a language is to be used [14] Prescriptions of taste are not true or false, so they can't be proved right or wrong;[16] however, claims regarding accuracy can be demonstrated to be true or false. [17] Strunk and White have been proven wrong on this point by logical analysis of quantification in natural language (like Pinker following Lewis and others above) — distributive expressions are neither exclusively singular or plural, they are indeterminate in number. [9]

Quantification

The simplest examples of quantification are existential and universal statements, which are marked in English by phrases like there is or words like all. In Predicate logic, an existential quantification is the predication of a property or relation to at least one member of the domain In Predicate logic, universal quantification is an attempt to formalize the notion that something (a Logical predicate) is true for everything, or every However, there are different types of quantification marked by other words like many, more and most. Quantification is also apparent in language referring to time, marked by words like always, often, sometimes, once or never. Apart from the quantifiers which refer to a unique singularity, like there is and once, they necessarily imply a distributive concept. Even in the case of there is and once, logical analysis views many of these as distributive statements equivalent to, out of all cases there is at least one. Hence literature seeking to explain quantification in natural language often refers to distributive constructions, and vice versa. S T U V Tragedy of the commons -->

Variables

The term variable arises due to the interest mathematicians, logicians, philosophers of language, theoretical linguists and computer language designers have in formal language representations of natural language. A formal language is a set of words, ie finite strings of letters, or symbols. [18] In their metalanguage, quantifiers are applied over the "domain" (or "restriction") of a variable. In Logic and Linguistics, a metalanguage is a Language used to make statements about statements in another language which is called the Object The domain of discourse, sometimes called the universe of discourse, logical discourse, or simply discourse, is an analytic tool used in Deductive Where natural language speakers use words or clitics to signal generalizations, language analysts define what they call variables that range over any element of the set of members of a group — the domain. A word is a unit of Language that carries meaning and consists of one or more Morphemes which are linked more or less tightly together and has a Phonetic In Linguistics, a clitic is a grammatically independent and phonologically dependent Word. Consider the examples of

The symbol, b, is used to represent a variable that can refer to any boy (the elements of the set of all boys, B). The upside-down A is a standard symbol for the universal quantifier — for all, for each or for every in natural language. In predicate logic, the truth-value of the proposition expressed above in a formal language does not depend on the particular value of the variable, b. In Mathematical logic, predicate logic is the generic term for symbolic Formal systems like First-order logic, Second-order logic, Many-sorted In Logic and Mathematics, a logical value, also called a truth value, is a value indicating the extent to which a Proposition is true This matches our natural language understanding. Whether or not every good boy deserves fruit doesn't depend on any particular boy. Because the truth-value of the proposition doesn't depend on the value of the variable, the variable is called bound. In Mathematics, and in other disciplines involving Formal languages including Mathematical logic and Computer science, a free variable is a If, however, there is no quantifier, the variable is called free, and the truth value of the proposition depends on the value of the variable. This also matches natural language. Whether Adam is bad or deserves fruit depends on Adam.

“ To be is to be the value of a bound variable. ”

—Quine, 'On What There Is', 1948[19]

Pinker argues that usage of "singular" they in English cannot be condemned on grammatical grounds, because it is probably better understood as a linguistic marker of a bound variable rather than as a pronoun with a referent. Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25 1908 Akron, Ohio &ndash December 25 2000 (known to intimates as "Van" "On logical grounds, then, variables are not the same thing as the more familiar 'referential' pronouns that trigger number agreement. "[9] He gives the following example.

Everyone returned to their seats means 'For all X, X returned to X's seat. ' The 'X' does not refer to any particular person or group of people. . . . The their there . . . refers neither to one thing nor to many things; it does not refer at all.

Everyone and they are not an 'antecedent' and a 'pronoun' . . . . They are a 'quantifier' and a 'bound variable,' a different logical relationship. [9]

Pinker's example demonstrates the acceptability of plural forms in distributive constructions. However, additional issues are raised by the attested usage of the logically equivalent alternative constructions of this distributive expression, using

Usage

Generic he

Until the late twentieth century, generic use of the pronoun he was preferred (but not required) in such constructions, as described in contemporary grammar books. For example, a grammar contemporary with the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary notes:

“ 410. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English . . . when the antecedent includes both masculine and feminine, or is a distributive word, taking in each of many persons,—the preferred method is to put the pronoun following in the masculine singular; if the antecedent is neuter, preceded by a distributive, the pronoun will be neuter singular. [20] ”

Examples of generic he

Generic he is still current English usage, however the gender neutral language movement discourages this use. Gender neutrality in English language (and in many other languages is a feature in its written and spoken versions in the late twentieth century for some people

Generic they

Generic he was a preference in usage, not a binding grammatical "rule", as Thackeray's use of both forms demonstrates. "The alternative to the masculine generic with the longest and most distinguished history in English is the third-person plural pronoun. Recognized writers have used they, them, themselves, and their to refer to singular nouns such as one, a person, an individual, and each since the 1300s. "[21]

Examples of generic they

Of the example from Shaw, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage (1989) states flatly: "It would be a violation of English idiom to use a singular pronoun in [that] sentence (But he does get killed) on the assumption that because no man is singular in form and governs a singular verb, it must take a singular pronoun in reference. George Bernard Shaw ( (26 July 1856 &ndash 2 November 1950 was an Irish Playwright. Merriam-Webster, which was originally the G & C Merriam Company of Springfield Massachusetts, is an American company that publishes reference books Notional agreement is in control, and its dictates must be followed. "[22] In other words, no man is syntactically singular, demonstrated by taking the singular form goes; however, it is semantically plural, hence idiomatically requiring generic or plural (not singular) they.

A majority of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language usage panel "of some 200 distinguished educators, writers, and public speakers"[23] "reject the use of they with singular antecedents" inasmuch as 82 percent of the panelists found the sentence "The typical student in the program takes about six years to complete their course work" to be unacceptable. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language ( AHD) is an American Dictionary of the English language published by [24]

Study has also shown that reading time of they increases significantly when used with a gender-determinate antecedent, suggesting that such use can confuse. [25]

Both generic he and generic they have long histories of use, and both are still used. However, both are also systematically avoided by particular groups. Style guides that avoid expressing a preference for either approach recommend recasting generic expressions as plurals to avoid the criticisms of either party.

Irrespective of the debate, when used, "singular" they can be seen to have an implication of indefinite reference (indefinite number or indefinite gender). It is most commonly used with indefinite referents of a distributive nature such as someone, anyone, everyone, and no one. Such references are not to one particular person but to a large group taken one at a time, causing influence from the implied plural. This is also evident in the case of some singular collective nouns, as in "The police are on their way. In Linguistics, a collective noun is a word used to define a group of objects where "objects" can be People, Animals Inanimate things " This phenomenon is somewhat less extensive in North American than in British and similar varieties of English, in which one might also hear "Chelsea have defeated Liverpool" or "The Government are of the view that. . . . " or "The audience were laughing. " Use of singular or plural forms in such cases is a matter of style not syntax, with regional variation in frequency.

Grammatical analysis

According to the traditional analysis,[26] English personal pronouns are typically used to refer back, or forward within a sentence, to a noun phrase (which may be a simple noun). In Linguistics, "traditional grammar" is a cover name for the collection of concepts and ideas about the structure of language that Western societies have received The personal pronouns of English can have various forms according to gender, number, person, and case. In grammatical theory, a noun phrase (abbreviated NP) is a Phrase whose head is a Noun or a Pronoun, optionally accompanied (According to a newer analysis,[27] to a determiner phrase, which may be a simple determiner. In Linguistics, a determiner phrase (DP is a syntactic category a phrase headed by a Determiner. A determiner is a Noun modifier that expresses the reference of a noun or noun phrase including quantity rather than its attributes as expressed )

Inflected forms
Nominative (subject) Accusative (object) Prenominal possessive Predicative possessive Reflexive
He He laughs. The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive What are traditionally and popularly called possessive adjectives &mdash in linguistic analyses possessive pronouns, possessive determiners or genitive pronouns A possessive pronoun is a Part of speech that attributes ownership to someone or something He (hiː is a third-person, singular Personal pronoun ( subject case) in Modern English. I hug him. His hair grows. I use his. He feeds himself.
She She laughs. She (ʃiː is a third-person, singular Personal pronoun ( subject case) in Modern English. I hug her. Her hair grows. I use hers. She feeds herself.
Prototypical they When my kids watch "The Simpsons", they laugh. They (ðeɪ is a third-person, Personal pronoun ( subject case) in Modern English. Whether they win or lose, I hug them. As long as people live, their hair grows. Most of my friends have cell phones, so I use theirs. The children feed themselves.
"Singular" they When I tell someone a joke they laugh. When I greet a friend I hug them. When someone does not get a haircut, their hair grows long. If my cell phone dies, a friend I am with lets me borrow theirs. Each child feeds themself/themselves.
Generic he When I tell someone a joke he laughs. When I greet a friend I hug him. When someone does not get a haircut, his hair grows long. If my cell phone dies, a friend I am with lets me borrow his. Each child feeds himself.

Plural

Generic (indeterminate number)

Singular

In the middle two of these example sentences, traditional grammars speak of the pronoun referring to a good student. However, following analysis by Quine,[5] writers like Lewis (above) understand structures involving generic antecedents to be a logically distinct class. Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25 1908 Akron, Ohio &ndash December 25 2000 (known to intimates as "Van" Pinker notes the pronouns are not in fact referring to anything in particular. Geoffrey Pullum uses the logical, rather than grammatical, term bound variable to describe such expressions. Professor Geoffrey K Pullum (born March 8, 1945 in Irvine, Scotland) is a linguist specialising in the study of English

Irrespective of how such cases are explained grammatically, however, both are well-formed English sentences. Both are attested in English literature prior to the 20th century, and both are still attested in 21st century English. [28][29]

"Singular" they, although morphologically a plural pronoun, is often used in those circumstances when an indefinite number is signified by an indefinite singular antecedent; for example,

This is analogous to the pronoun you, which originally was only plural, but by about 1700 replaced thou for singular referents,[30] while retaining the plural verb form. Morphology is the field of Linguistics that studies the internal structure of words Some uses of "singular" they follow a grammatical rule whereby singular indefinite antecedents (such as everyone, anyone, no one, and all) are followed by a coordinate or independent clause containing the plural pronoun 'they'. The plural reflexive form themselves is used as well; with some speakers using the singular form themself, in particular with semantically singular they.

Even when the gender is known, they is sometimes found with a generic referent. For example: "A teenage boy rarely thinks about their future. "[31] A teenage boy rarely thinks about his future is more likely in formal writing.

Many other modern uses follow the prescription of gender-neutral English in the style manuals of various organizations. Gender neutrality in English language (and in many other languages is a feature in its written and spoken versions in the late twentieth century for some people As the syntactically singular third-person pronouns of English are all either gender-specific (he and she) or inappropriate for reference to people (it), "singular" they is also often used where the sex of the referent is either unknown or irrelevant:

Gender neutral language movement

In the late 20th century, the feminist movement expressed concern regarding the use of generic he in the English language. Feminism is a discourse that involves various movements theories, and Philosophies which are concerned with the issue of Gender difference, advocate The feminist claim was that such usage contributes to an assumption that maleness is "standard," and that femaleness is "different". They also claimed that such use is misogynistic. Misogyny (mɪˈsɒdʒɪni is hatred (or contemptof women Misogyny is parallel to Misandry — the hatred of men One response to this was an increase in the use of generic she in academic journal articles from around this time. However, the more common response has been prescriptive, with many institutions publishing gender neutral style guides, notably in government, academia and publishing. [32] For example, The Cambridge Guide to English Usage (2004) expresses several preferences. "Generic/universal their provides a gender-free pronoun, avoiding the exclusive his and the clumsy his/her. "

It avoids gratuitous sexism and gives the statement broadest reference. … They, them, their are now freely used in agreement with singular indefinite pronouns and determiners, those with universal implications such as any(one), every(one), no(one), as well as each and some(one), whose reference is often more individual. … For those listening or reading, it has become unremarkable - an element of common usage. [33]

The use of masculine generic nouns and pronouns in written and spoken language has decreased since the 1960s. [34] In a corpus of spontaneous speech collected in Australia in the 1990s, "singular" they had become the most frequently used generic pronoun. [35] The increased usage of "singular" they may be at least partly due to an increasing desire for gender-neutral language; while writers a hundred years ago might have had no qualm using he with a referent of indeterminate gender, writers today often feel uncomfortable with this. Gender-neutral language, gender-inclusive language, or gender neutrality is language use that aims at minimizing assumptions regarding the Gender One solution in formal writing has often been to write he or she, or something similar, but this is considered awkward when used excessively, overly politically correct,[36] or both. Political correctness (adjectivally politically correct; both forms commonly abbreviated to PC) is a term applied to Language, ideas policies or behavior

In certain contexts, singular they may sound less obtrusive and more natural than generic he, or he or she[37] give the following example:

Nobody in their right mind would do a thing like that.

The alternative formulation ("Nobody in his right mind […]") "now seems inappropriate to a large proportion of speakers, who systematically avoid the use of he in such contexts".

Some grammar and usage guides have accepted singular uses of they, in cases limited to references to an indeterminate person. [38] For example, A person might find themself in a fix is considered standard English, but not *Dr. Standard English (often shortened to SE within linguistic circles is a term generally applied to a form of the English language that is thought to be normative Brown might find themself in a fix. For the latter, the most usual circumlocutions are: recasting the sentence in the plural (Doctors might find themselves …), second person (If you're a doctor, you might find yourself …), or sometimes reflexive (One might find oneself …). Singular they is occasionally used to refer to an indeterminate person whose gender is known, as in No mother should be forced to testify against their child.

Some grammarians (e. g. , Fowler 1992, pp. 300–301) continue to view singular they as grammatically inconsistent, and recommend either recasting in the plural or avoiding the pronoun altogether. Others say that there is no sufficient reason not to extend singular they to include specific people of unknown gender, as well as to transgender, bigender, intersexual and androgyne people, and those who do not identify exclusively with either gender. Transgender (trænzˈdʒɛndɚ from ( Latin) derivatives Bigender (bi+gender is a tendency to move between masculine and feminine Gender -typed behaviour depending on context expressing a distinctly " Intersexuality is the state of a living thing of a gonochoristic species whose Sex chromosomes, Genitalia, and/or Secondary sex characteristics Androgyny is a term derived from the Greek words ανήρ ( anér, meaning man and γυνή ( gyné, meaning woman that can refer to either of two [39]

Other manuals of style remain more neutral on the subject. The Chicago Manual of Style states: "On the one hand, it is unacceptable to a great many reasonable readers to use the generic masculine pronoun ('he' in reference to no one in particular). On the other hand, it is unacceptable to a great many readers either to resort to nontraditional gimmicks to avoid the generic masculine (by using 'he/she' or 's/he. ' for example) or to use 'they' as a kind of singular pronoun. " (233) On the one hand, those objecting to the generic masculine pronoun are described as "reasonable readers" while those objecting to the singular they remain unmodified by any such adjective. On the other, 'he/she' and "singular" they are described as nontraditional gimmicks. This stops short of an endorsement of any particular course of action.

Current debate relates to wider questions of political correctness and equal rights, in particular, the extent to which language influences thought. Political correctness (adjectivally politically correct; both forms commonly abbreviated to PC) is a term applied to Language, ideas policies or behavior In Linguistics, the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis ( SWH) (also known as the " Linguistic relativity hypothesis " postulates a systematic relationship

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Chicago Manual of Style, p. Gender neutrality in English language (and in many other languages is a feature in its written and spoken versions in the late twentieth century for some people Gender-neutral, gender-inclusive or epicene pronouns are Pronouns that neither reveal nor imply the Gender or sex of a person 233.
  2. ^ Lewis notes that adverbs of quantification operate beyond moments to periods, cases and variables generally, sometimes unrestricted, other times restricted by conditionals; and he demonstrates how, often, both adverbs and conditionals may not be explicitly present in natural language, but may be reconstituted in "canonical form", with isomorphic truth-functionality, hence (logically) identical interpretation. In Grammar, conditional sentences are sentences discussing factual implications or hypothetical situations and their consequences Generally in Mathematics, a canonical form (often called normal form or standard form) of an object is a standard way of presenting that object In Abstract algebra, an isomorphism ( Greek: ἴσος isos "equal" and μορφή morphe "shape" is a bijective Truth functional' redirects here for the truth functional conditional see Material conditional. David Lewis, 'Adverbs of Quantification', in EL Keenan (ed. David Kellogg Lewis ( September 28, 1941  &ndash October 14, 2001) is considered to have been one of the leading philosophers of the latter ), Formal Semantics of Natural Language, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), pp. Cambridge University Press (known colloquially as CUP is a Publisher given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1534 3-15. Reprinted as chapter 7 in Paul Portner and Barbara H. Partee (eds), Formal Semantics: The Essential Readings, (Blackwell, 2002).
  3. ^ Berman is usually cited, see the following.
    • The Semantics of Open Sentences. PhD thesis. A dissertation (also called thesis or disquisition) is a document that presents the author's Research and findings and is submitted in support of candidature University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1991. The University of Massachusetts Amherst (otherwise known as UMass Amherst, Massachusetts, or UMass) is a research and Land-grant university in
    • 'An Analysis of Quantifier Variability in Indirect Questions'. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 11. Edited by Phil Branigan and others. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989. The MIT Press is a University press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT in Cambridge Massachusetts ( USA) Pages 1–16.
    • 'Situation-Based Semantics for Adverbs of Quantification'. In J. Blevins and Anne Vainikka (eds). University of Massachusetts Occasional Papers 12. Graduate Linguistic Student Association, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1987. The University of Massachusetts Amherst (otherwise known as UMass Amherst, Massachusetts, or UMass) is a research and Land-grant university in
  4. ^ These are special because they are "bound" in semantics but not syntax. The name is taken from examples in Peter Thomas Geach, Reference and Generality: An Examination of Some Medieval and Modern Theories, (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1962). Peter Thomas Geach (giːtʃ born 29 March 1916) is a British philosopher
  5. ^ a b Willard Van Orman Quine, 'Variables Explained Away', Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 104 (1960): 343-347. Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25 1908 Akron, Ohio &ndash December 25 2000 (known to intimates as "Van" Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society is a quarterly Philosophy journal published by the American Philosophical Society since 1838
  6. ^ Or "pronoun of laziness". Geach, work cited.
  7. ^ Since these make the quantification explicit.
  8. ^ For, specifically, donkey anaphora analogues in languages other than English, see publications by Adrian Brasoveanu.
  9. ^ a b c d Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct, 1994. Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18 1954 is a prominent Canadian - American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and author The Language Instinct is a book by Steven Pinker, published in 1994. Quoted online.
  10. ^ Ricardo Etxepare, 'Indeterminate pronouns and universal quantification in Basque', (University of California, Los Angeles, Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference 15, unpublished paper, 2005).
  11. ^ S. -Y. Kuroda, An Integrated Theory of Linguistic Description, (Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 1969).
  12. ^ Dietz Otto Edzard, Hand buch der Orientalistik, (Leiden: Brill, 2003).
  13. ^ MA Just and PA Carpenter, 'Comprehension of Negation with Quantification', Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 10 (1971): 244–253.
  14. ^ a b "Singular they": God said it, I believe it, that settles it, Language Log 13 September, 2006.
  15. ^ a b Strunk and White, The Elements of Style, revised 1959, reprinted 1999. The Elements of Style ( Strunk & White) is an American English Writing Style guide.
  16. ^ "They may or may not conform to standards of usage or taste. But they are not true or false. " Howard K. Wettstein, The Magic Prism: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
  17. ^ For accuracy implying true or false, see Accuracy and precision for a common example of usage.
  18. ^ Notably Bertrand Arthur William Russell and Richard Merett Montague. Bertrand Arthur William Russell 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970 was a British Philosopher, Historian Richard Merett Montague (September 20 1930 Stockton California – March 7 1971 Los Angeles) was an American Mathematician and
  19. ^ Willard Van Orman Quine, 'On What There Is', Review of Metaphysics 2 (1948): 21–28. Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25 1908 Akron, Ohio &ndash December 25 2000 (known to intimates as "Van"
  20. ^ W. M. Baskervill and J. W. Sewell, An English Grammar, 1896. William Malone Baskervill (1850-1899 was a writer and professor of the English language and literature at Vanderbilt University. James Witt Sewell (1865 - 1955 was a Writer and Professor of the English language in The Fogg High School.
  21. ^ 'They with Singular Antecedent', American Heritage Book of English Usage: A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English, 1996.
  22. ^ The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage (1989), p. 903.
  23. ^ Usage Panel
  24. ^ 'They' The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth edition, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000).
  25. ^ J. Foertsch and MA Gernsbacher, 'In Search of Gender Neutrality: Is Singular They a Cognitively Efficient Substitute for Generic He?', Psychological Science 8 (1997): 106–111.
  26. ^ One that still has many adherents among linguists; for example Huddleston and Pullum, Student's Introduction. (2005)
  27. ^ For example, Andrew Radford, Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the Structure of English (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004; ISBN 0-521-54274-X).
  28. ^ Huddleston and Pullum, Student's Introduction, p. 105.
  29. ^ "For those listening or reading, it has become unremarkable - an element of common usage. " (The Cambridge Guide to English Usage, p. 538)
  30. ^ Guide to English Usage (2004) p. 539
  31. ^ Michael Newman (1997) Epicene pronouns: The linguistics of a prescriptive problem; Newman (1997) "What can pronouns tell us? A case study of English epicenes", Studies in language 22:2, 353-389.
  32. ^ Some examples: Federation Press Style Guide for use in preparation of book manuscripts (PDF file); Australian Guide to Legal Citation
  33. ^ Cambr. Guide to Eng. Usage (2004), p. 538
  34. ^ Pauwels 2003, p. 563.
  35. ^ Pauwels, p. 564)
  36. ^ Lou Ann Matossian, Burglars, Babysitters, and Persons: A Sociolinguistic Study of Generic Pronoun Usage in Philadelphia and Minneapolis (University of Pennsylvania, 1997), accessed 10 June 2006. Events 1190 - Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the Sally River while leading an army to Jerusalem Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.
  37. ^ Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, A Student's Introduction to English Grammar (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005; ISBN 0-521-84837-7), pp. 103–105.
  38. ^ American Heritage Dictionary, (1992); and Chicago Manual of Style, (1993); cited in Laura Madson and Robert Hessling, "Readers' Perceptions of Four Alternatives to Masculine Generic Pronouns", Journal of Social Psychology 141. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language ( AHD) is an American Dictionary of the English language published by The Chicago Manual of Style (abbreviated in writing as CMS or CMOS or verbally as Chicago) is a Style guide for American English 1 (February 2001): 156–158. See also Baranowski 2002.
  39. ^ Amy Warenda, "They", Writing across the Curriculum 4 (April 1993): 89–97 (PDF file; URL accessed September 17, 2006); Juliane Schwarz, "Non-sexist language at the beginning of the 21st century: A feminist topic in a post-feminist era", research colloquium handout, 2003 (PDF file; URL accessed June 10, 2005); see also Baranowski 2002. Events 1176 - The Battle of Myriokephalon is fought 1462 - The Battle of Świecino (or Battle of Żarnowiec Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1190 - Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the Sally River while leading an army to Jerusalem Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

References

Further reading

External links

Dictionary

singular they

-noun

  1. (grammar) The use of they to agree to with a singular antecedent as in the sentence "Everyone said they knew what they were doing."
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