Bjorkman | Singular they and the syntactic representation of gender in English

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <title>Bjorkman | Singular they and the syntactic representation of gender in English | Glossa: a journal of general linguistics </title> <link href="/static/common/lightbox/css/lightbox.css" rel="stylesheet" />    <meta name="DC.Date.created" scheme="ISO8601" content="2017-09-06"/> <meta name="DC.Date.dateSubmitted" scheme="ISO8601" content="2017-03-05"/> <meta name="DC.Date.issued" scheme="ISO8601" content="2017-09-06"/> <meta name="DC.Date.modified" scheme="ISO8601" content="2017-09-06"/> <meta name="DC.Description" xml:lang="en" content="Singular they enjoys a curious notoriety in popular discussions of English grammar. Despite this, and though its use with quantificational, non-specific, and genuinely epicene antecedents dates back at least to the 1400s (Balhorn 2004), it has been little discussed in formal linguistics. This squib suggests an analysis of this longstanding use of they, while also describing a more recent change in they’s distribution, whereby many speakers now accept it with singular, definite, and specific antecedents of known binary gender. I argue that the distribution of they, in both conservative and innovative varieties, has implications for our understanding of the syntactic representation of gender in English, the structure of bound variable pronouns, and the regulation of coreference."/> <meta name="DC.Format" scheme="IMT" content="xml"/> <meta name="DC.Format" scheme="IMT" content="pdf"/> <meta name="DC.Identifier.DOI" content="10.5334/gjgl.374"/> <meta name="DC.Identifier.URI" content="https://www.glossa-journal.org/article/id/4942/"/> <meta name="DC.Language" scheme="ISO639-1" content="en"/> <meta name="DC.Rights" content=""/> <meta name="DC.Source" content="Glossa: a journal of general linguistics"/> <meta name="DC.Source.ISSN" content="2397-1835"/> <meta name="DC.Source.Issue" content="1"/> <meta name="DC.Source.Volume" content="2"/> <meta name="DC.Source.URI" content="https://www.glossa-journal.org/"/> <meta name="DC.Title" content="Singular they and the syntactic representation of gender in English"/> <meta name="citation_publisher" content="Open Library of Humanities"/> <meta name="citation_journal_title" content="Glossa: a journal of general linguistics"/> <meta name="citation_issn" content="2397-1835"/> <meta name="citation_author" content="Bronwyn M. Bjorkman"/> <meta name="citation_author_email" content="bronwyn.bjorkman@queensu.ca"/> <meta name="citation_author_institution" content="Queen’s University, 99 University Ave, Kingston ON K7K, 1W4"/> <meta name="citation_title" content="Singular they and the syntactic representation of gender in English"/> <meta name="citation_publication_date" content="2017-09-06"/> <meta name="citation_volume" content="2"/> <meta name="citation_issue" content="1"/> <meta name="citation_doi" content="10.5334/gjgl.374"/> <meta name="citation_abstract_html_url" content="https://www.glossa-journal.org/article/id/4942/"/> <meta name="citation_language" content="en"/> <meta name="citation_keywords" xml:lang="en" content="features, gender, pronouns, variable binding"/> <meta name="citation_pdf_url" content="https://www.glossa-journal.org/article/id/4942/download/pdf/"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Singular <i>they</i> and the syntactic representation of gender in English"> <meta name="twitter:description" content="Singular they enjoys a curious notoriety in popular discussions of English grammar. Despite this, and though its use with quantificational, non-specific, and genuinely epicene antecedents dates back at least to the 1400s (Balhorn 2004), it has been little discussed in formal linguistics. This squib suggests an analysis of this longstanding use of they, while also describing a more recent change in they’s distribution, whereby many speakers now accept it with singular, definite, and specific antecedents of known binary gender. I argue that the distribution of they, in both conservative and innovative varieties, has implications for our understanding of the syntactic representation of gender in English, the structure of bound variable pronouns, and the regulation of coreference."> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://www.glossa-journal.org/article/id/4942/file/55588/"> <meta property="og:title" content="Singular <i>they</i> and the syntactic representation of gender in English" /> <meta property="og:type" content="article" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://www.glossa-journal.org/article/id/4942/" /> <meta property="og:image" content="https://www.glossa-journal.org/article/id/4942/file/55588/" /> <meta property="og:description" content="Singular they enjoys a curious notoriety in popular discussions of English grammar. Despite this, and though its use with quantificational, non-specific, and genuinely epicene antecedents dates back at least to the 1400s (Balhorn 2004), it has been little discussed in formal linguistics. This squib suggests an analysis of this longstanding use of they, while also describing a more recent change in they’s distribution, whereby many speakers now accept it with singular, definite, and specific antecedents of known binary gender. I argue that the distribution of they, in both conservative and innovative varieties, has implications for our understanding of the syntactic representation of gender in English, the structure of bound variable pronouns, and the regulation of coreference." /> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Glossa: a journal of general linguistics" /> <link rel="sitemap" type="application/xml" title="Sitemap" href="/sitemap.xml"> <link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.7.0/css/font-awesome.min.css" rel="stylesheet" integrity="sha384-wvfXpqpZZVQGK6TAh5PVlGOfQNHSoD2xbE+QkPxCAFlNEevoEH3Sl0sibVcOQVnN" crossorigin="anonymous"> <link href="https://www.glossa-journal.org/feed/" type="application/atom+xml" rel="alternate" title="Article Feed for Journal"> <link href="https://www.glossa-journal.org/feed/news/" type="application/atom+xml" rel="alternate" title="News Feed for Journal"> <link rel="icon" href="/media/cover_images/bdde4edb-6d58-47ed-846a-fa79b2aa3740.png" 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class="orbit-image" src="/media/cover_images/f19362ad-7271-486d-88c1-80467b6f49ff.png" alt="Singular they and the syntactic representation of gender in English"> <span class="card-title"> <div class="carousel-text-wrapper hide-on-small-only"> <small> Squibs </small> <br/> Singular <i>they</i> and the syntactic representation of gender in English </div> </span> <span class="card-title" style="font-size: 17px;"> <div class="carousel-text-wrapper show-on-small hide-on-med-and-up"> <small> Squibs <br/> Singular <i>they</i> and the syntactic representation of gender in English</small> </div> </span> </div> <div> </div> </div> </div> <div id="article" class="col m8 s12"> <div class="card"> <div class="card-content"> <h2>Abstract</h2> <p><p class="p1">Singular <em>they </em>enjoys a curious notoriety in popular discussions of English grammar. Despite this, and though its use with quantificational, non-specific, and genuinely epicene antecedents dates back at least to the 1400s (Balhorn 2004), it has been little discussed in formal linguistics. This squib suggests an analysis of this longstanding use of <em>they</em>, while also describing a more recent change in <em>they</em>’s distribution, whereby many speakers now accept it with singular, definite, and specific antecedents of known binary gender. I argue that the distribution of <em>they</em>, in both conservative and innovative varieties, has implications for our understanding of the syntactic representation of gender in English, the structure of bound variable pronouns, and the regulation of coreference.</p></p> <div class="spacer"> <div class="divider"></div> </div> <h2>Keywords</h2> <p> features, gender, pronouns, variable binding</p> <div class="spacer"> <div class="divider"></div> </div> <h2>How to Cite</h2> <div id="article_how_to_cite"> <p> Bjorkman, B., (2017) “Singular <i>they</i> and the syntactic representation of gender in English”, <i>Glossa: a journal of general linguistics</i> 2(1): 80. doi: <a href="https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.374">https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.374</a> </p> </div> <div class="spacer"> <div class="divider"></div> </div> <div class="show-on-small hide-on-med-and-up"> <h2>Downloads</h2> <p> <a href="/article/4942/galley/12433/download/">Download PDF</a> <br/> </p> <div class="spacer"> <div class="divider"></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <div class="col m12 l12 s12"> <div class="card"> <div class="card-content center"> <div class="alm"> <h5> 10587 </h5> <p><i class="fa fa-eye"></i>Views</p> </div> <div class="alm"> <h5> 6219 </h5> <p><i class="fa fa-download"></i>Downloads</p> </div> <div class="alm"> <h5> 42 </h5> <p><i class="fa fa-quote-left"></i>Citations</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="col m4"> <div class="card"> <div class="card-content"> <h4> Share </h4> <a class="waves-effect waves-light btn btn-small facebook-bg" href="https://www.facebook.com/share.php?p[url]=https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.374" target="_blank" aria-label="Share on Facebook"><i class="fa fa-facebook"></i></a> <a class="waves-effect waves-light btn btn-small twitter-bg twitter-x" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Singular <i>they</i> and the syntactic representation of gender in English https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.374" target="_blank" aria-label="Share on X">𝕏</a> <a class="waves-effect waves-light btn btn-small linkedin-bg" href="https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite?url=https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.374" target="_blank" aria-label="Share on LinkedIn"><i class="fa fa-linkedin"></i></a></button> <div class="spacer"> <div class="divider"></div> </div> <h4> Authors </h4> Bronwyn M. Bjorkman <span itemprop="worksFor" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/CollegeOrUniversity"></span> <span itemprop="name">(Queen’s University, 99 University Ave, Kingston ON K7K, 1W4)</span> <a itemprop="email" href="mailto:bronwyn.bjorkman@queensu.ca" class="fa fa-envelope email-link"></a> <div class="spacer"> <div class="divider"></div> </div> <h4> Downloads </h4> <ul> <li> <a href="/article/4942/galley/12433/download/">Download PDF</a> </li> </ul> <div class="spacer"> <div class="divider"></div> </div> <h3>Issue</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="/issue/459/info/"> 2017 • Volume 2 </a> <br /> </li> </ul> <div class="spacer"> <div class="divider"></div> </div> <div class="section"> <h4>Publication details</h4> <table class="sidebar-table"> <tr> <th>Article No.</th> <td>80</td> </tr> <tr> <th>Accepted on</th> <td>2017-07-12</td> </tr> <tr> <th>Published on</th> <td id="article_date_published"> 2017-09-06 </td> </tr> </table> </div> <div class="spacer"> <div class="divider"></div> </div> <h4> Licence </h4> <p>Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 <a rel="license" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"><i class="fa fa-external-link"></i></a></p> <div class="spacer"> <div class="divider"></div> </div> <h4>Identifiers</h4> <ul> <li>DOI: <a href="https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.374">https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.374</a></li> </ul> <div class="spacer"> <div class="divider"></div> </div> <h4> Peer Review </h4> <p> <i class="fa fa-check-circle-o" style="color: green"></i> This article has been peer reviewed. </p> <h4> File Checksums (MD5) </h4> <ul> <li> <small>PDF: 97e84f8aeb67d081e806d85008e0ee14</small> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div id="summarymodal" class="modal"> <div class="modal-content"> <h4>Non Specialist Summary</h4> <p>This article has no summary</p> </div> <div class="modal-footer"> <a href="#!" class="modal-action modal-close waves-effect waves-green btn-flat">Close</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> <footer class="page-footer"> <div class="footer-copyright"> <div class="container"> <div class="row expanded"> <div class="col m10"> <p> | ISSN: 2397-1835 | Published by <a href="https://www.openlibhums.org">Open Library of Humanities </a> | <a href="https://www.openlibhums.org/site/privacy" > Privacy Policy </a> | </p> </div> <div class="col m2"> <form action="/i18n/setlang/" method="post"><input type="hidden" name="csrfmiddlewaretoken" value="sqxkvhxlYngpvI5nlIzmm9r0RoLMKJ3MLRJOuzj95Ie191qhWvHK9Gv4TuEEhUub"> <input name="next" type="hidden" value=""/> <select name="language" onchange="this.form.submit()" class="browser-default language-select" autocomplete="off"> </select> </form> </div> </div> </div> </div> </footer>  <script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.4.1.min.js" integrity="sha256-CSXorXvZcTkaix6Yvo6HppcZGetbYMGWSFlBw8HfCJo=" crossorigin="anonymous"> </script> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@materializecss/materialize@1.2.2/dist/js/materialize.min.js"> </script> <script> window.M.AutoInit() </script> <script src="/static/material/material.js"></script> <script src="/static/admin/js/csrf.js"></script> <script src="/static/common/js/timezone-setter.js"></script> <script>setTimezone();</script> <script> </script> <script src="/static/material/toc.js"></script> <script> $(document).ready(function () { $('.scrollspy').scrollSpy(); }); $(document).scroll(function () { var infobar_y = document.querySelector('nav').offsetHeight + document.querySelector('.card-image').offsetHeight + document.querySelector('.m4').offsetHeight var y = $(this).scrollTop(); if (y > infobar_y) { $('#toc-card').fadeIn(); } else { $('#toc-card').fadeOut(); } }); </script> <script src='https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/mathjax/2.7.2/MathJax.js?config=TeX-MML-AM_CHTML'></script> <script> MathJax.Hub.Config({ tex2jax: {inlineMath: [["\$", "\$"]]}, "HTML-CSS": { linebreaks: {automatic: true, width: "container"} } }); </script> <script> $('.table-expansion').each(function(){ var child = $(this).children(":first") child.append('<br /><small><a href="#table-' + $(this).attr('id') + '" class="modal-trigger">View Larger Table</a></small>'); }); </script> <script src="/static/common/lightbox/js/lightbox.js"></script> <script type='text/javascript' src='https://d1bxh8uas1mnw7.cloudfront.net/assets/embed.js'></script> </body> </html>

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Bjorkman | Singular they and the syntactic representation of gender in English | Glossa: a journal of general linguistics