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47-522: [REDACTED] Look up thon  or -thon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Thon may refer to: Thon (mythology) , a figure from Greek mythology Thon (name) , a surname and given name Thon (river) , northern France Thon (A Canticle for Leibowitz) , an academic rank similar to a university "don" in the science fiction novel A Canticle for Leibowitz -thon, -athon, or -a-thon,

94-412: A correlation between resistance to the second and third uses and prescriptivist attitudes about language. Work by Keir Moulton and colleagues, published in 2020, has also found that the presence of a linguistic antecedent — which is the case for examples (14), (15), and (16) — significantly improves the acceptability judgments of singular they . In sentences with a linguistic antecedent, such as (17a),

141-473: A full system of grammatical gender, where all nouns are assigned to classes such as masculine, feminine and neuter. In languages with grammatical gender, even pronouns which are semantically gender-neutral may be required to take a gender for such purposes as grammatical agreement . Thus in French , for example, the first- and second-person personal pronouns may behave as either masculine or feminine depending on

188-518: A generic suffix and back-formation from marathon , usually used for fundraising events Telethon , a televised fundraising event Walkathon , a fundraising event involving walking "Thon", proposed third-person singular gender-neutral pronoun See also [ edit ] All pages with titles beginning with Thon All pages with titles containing Thon Than (disambiguation) Thou (disambiguation) Thun (disambiguation) Tron (disambiguation) Topics referred to by

235-419: A male-centric society, and a negative bias against women. In some contexts, the use of he , him or his as a gender-neutral pronoun may give a jarring or ridiculous impression: The use of generic he has also been seen as prejudicial by some, as in the following cases: Avoidance of the generic he is seen by proponents of non-sexist writing as indicating that the purportedly gender-neutral he

282-401: A non-human animal with a known sex. He or she are also for a non-human animal who is referred to by a proper name, as in (8) where Fido is understood to be the name of a dog. At least one grammar states that he or she is obligatory for animals referred to by a proper name . The other English pronouns (the first- and second-person personal pronouns I , we , you , etc.;

329-402: A person has adopted a persona of a different gender (such as when acting or performing in drag ), pronouns with the gender of the persona are used. In gay slang , the gender of pronouns is sometimes reversed ( gender transposition ). He and she are normally used for humans; use of it can be dehumanizing, and, more importantly, implies a lack of gender even if one is present, and

376-623: A university "don" in the science fiction novel A Canticle for Leibowitz -thon, -athon, or -a-thon, a generic suffix and back-formation from marathon , usually used for fundraising events Telethon , a televised fundraising event Walkathon , a fundraising event involving walking "Thon", proposed third-person singular gender-neutral pronoun See also [ edit ] All pages with titles beginning with Thon All pages with titles containing Thon Than (disambiguation) Thou (disambiguation) Thun (disambiguation) Tron (disambiguation) Topics referred to by

423-494: Is he (with the related forms him , his and himself ); the feminine is she (with the related forms her , hers and herself ); the neuter is it (with the related forms its and itself ). The third-person plural they (and its related forms them , their , themselves ) are gender-neutral and can also be used to refer to singular, personal antecedents, as in (7). Generally speaking, he refers to males, and she refers to females. When

470-473: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages thon [REDACTED] Look up thon  or -thon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Thon may refer to: Thon (mythology) , a figure from Greek mythology Thon (name) , a surname and given name Thon (river) , northern France Thon (A Canticle for Leibowitz) , an academic rank similar to

517-443: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Gender-neutral pronoun In languages with pronominal gender, problems of usage may arise in contexts where a person of unspecified or unknown social gender is being referred to but commonly available pronouns are gender-specific. Different solutions to this issue have been proposed and used in various languages. Many languages of

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564-511: Is in fact not gender-neutral since it "brings a male image to mind". The same would apply to the generic she , bringing a female image to mind. She has traditionally been used as a generic pronoun when making generalizations about people belonging to a group when most members of that group are assumed to be female: The 19th and 20th centuries saw an upsurge in consciousness and advocacy of gender equality , and this has led in particular to advocacy for gender-neutral language . In this context,

611-620: Is included than where both are." Authors sometimes employ rubrics for selecting she or he such as: Old English had grammatical gender , and thus commonly used "it" for people , even where they were clearly female or male: Over time, English gradually developed a system of natural gender (gender based on semantic meaning) which now holds sway in Modern English . In Modern English, pronouns referring to adult humans are typically gendered: feminine she , masculine he . However, in some contexts, children may be referred to with

658-546: Is incorrect. Prescription against singular they has historically impacted more formal registers of writing. Conversely, to the present day, singular they continues to be attested in both speech and less formal registers of writing in British and American English. Recent corpus data suggest that English dialects in Hong Kong, India, and Singapore use this epicene less than British English. The Cambridge Grammar of

705-551: Is no longer syntactically motivated in the system at large. Instead, the choice of anaphoric pronouns is controlled by referential gender or social gender. Example of agreement in English Issues concerning gender and pronoun usage commonly arise in situations where it is necessary to choose between gender-specific pronouns, even though the sex of the person or persons being referred to is not known, not specified, or (for plurals) mixed. In English and many other languages,

752-429: Is often used instead of one : Historically, there were two gender-neutral pronouns native to English dialects, ou and ( h ) a . According to Dennis Baron 's Grammar and Gender : In 1789, William H. Marshall records the existence of a dialectal English epicene pronoun, singular "ou": " 'Ou will' expresses either he will, she will, or it will." Marshall traces "ou" to Middle English epicene "a", used by

799-603: Is sometimes used for named ships and countries; this may be considered old-fashioned and is in decline. In some local dialects and casual speech she and he are used for various objects and named vehicles (like a personal car). Animate objects like robots and voice assistants are often assumed to have a gender and sometimes have a name with a matching gender. (See Gender in English § Metaphorical gender .) For people who are transgender , style guides and associations of journalists and health professionals advise use of

846-415: Is usually, thus, inappropriate. It is sometimes used to refer to a baby or a child in a generic sense as in response to the question What is it? when a baby has been born: -It's a girl/boy . However, when talking to parents of intersex babies, some doctors are advised to use your baby instead. It is often used for non-human animals of unknown sex, but he or she is frequently used for

893-483: The gender or sex of the referent." An early example of prescribing the use of he to refer to a person of unknown gender is Anne Fisher's 1745 grammar book A New Grammar . Older editions of Fowler also took this view. This usage continues to this day: This may be compared to usage of the word man for humans in general (although that was the original sense of the word "man" in the Germanic languages , much as

940-460: The pronoun preferred or considered appropriate by the person in question. When dealing with clients or patients, health practitioners are advised to take note of the pronouns used by the individuals themselves, which may involve using different pronouns at different times. This is also extended to the name preferred by the person referred to. LGBTQ+ advocacy groups also advise using the pronouns and names preferred or considered appropriate by

987-742: The English Language and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary include the following examples among the possible uses of singular they , which they note is not universally adopted by all speakers. While many speakers recognize the need for gender neutral pronouns, they nevertheless deem referential singular they, as in (13), ungrammatical or unfit for the job due to the ambiguity it can create in certain contexts. New pronouns such as ve (used in Science Fiction) and ze / hir have been proposed in order to avoid

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1034-637: The Latin word for "human in general", homo , came to mean "male human"—which was vir , in Latin—in most of the Romance languages). The use, in formal English, of he , him or his as a gender-neutral pronoun has traditionally been considered grammatically correct. For example, William Safire in his "On Language" column in The New York Times approved of the use of generic he , mentioning

1081-426: The child's sex is known: In the passage given in (27c), the characters refer to the boy-child at the center of the narrative as a he , but then the narrator refers to it as an it . In this case, the child has yet to be developed into a character that can communicate with the reader. The Quirk et al. 1985 grammar states that the use of gendered he or she is optional for non-human animals of known sex. It gives

1128-402: The convention of the collective masculine led to calls for gender-neutral pronouns, and attempts to invent pronouns for this purpose date back to at least 1850, although the use of singular they as a natural gender-neutral pronoun in English has persisted since the 14th century. The English language has gender-specific personal pronouns in the third- person singular. The masculine pronoun

1175-401: The following example, which illustrates the use of both the gender-neutral possessive its and the gendered possessive her to refer to a bird: Another gender-neutral pronoun that can be used to refer to people is the impersonal pronoun " one ". This can be used in conjunction with the generic he according to the preference and style of the writer. In everyday language, generic you

1222-421: The following sections. Since at least the 14th century, they (including related forms such as them , their , theirs , themselves , and themself ) has been used with a plural verb form to refer to a singular antecedent. This usage is known as the singular they , as it is equivalent to the corresponding singular form of the pronoun. This is the generalized usage in third person. To imply 'his'

1269-468: The former case, the referent's gender may be less likely to be known or relevant. Forms of the pronoun he were used for both males and females during the Middle English and Modern English periods. Susanne Wagner observed that "There was rather an extended period of time in the history of the English language when the choice of a supposedly masculine personal pronoun ( him ) said nothing about

1316-457: The gender-neutral pronoun it . When not referring specifically to children, it is not generally applied to people, even in cases where their gender is unknown. The 1985 edition of the Quirk et al. grammar observes that whereas he and she are used for entities treated as people (including anthropomorphized entities), the pronoun it is normally used for entities not regarded as persons. But

1363-610: The independent third person pronoun yeye 'she/he' can be used to refer to a female or male being. What matters in this case is that the referent belongs to the animate class (i.e humans or non-human animals) as opposed to an inanimate class. Since pronouns do not distinguish the social gender of the referent, they are considered neutral in this kind of system. In other languages – including most Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic languages – third-person personal pronouns (at least those used to refer to people) intrinsically distinguish male from female. This feature commonly co-exists with

1410-597: The masculine form has sometimes served as the default or unmarked form; that is, masculine pronouns have been used in cases where the referent or referents are not known to be (all) female. This collective masculine is also the case in ancient languages, like Classical Greek and Biblical Hebrew and have influenced the modern forms. This leads to sentences such as (5a) in English, and (6a) in French. Example of gender-neutral masculine: English Example of collective masculine: French As early as 1795, dissatisfaction with

1457-412: The masculine pronouns is most often mentioned first. Some observers, such as the linguist James McCawley, suggest that the use of periphrastic forms may promote stereotypes: " he and she [can foster] the standard sexual stereotypes [in that] if you say he or she , you imply that women aren't included unless they are specifically mentioned, and you make it easier to talk about cases where only one sex

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1504-419: The mnemonic phrase "the male embraces the female". A reader replied with an example of use of the purportedly gender-neutral he , as in (20). Such examples point to the fact indiscriminate use of generic he leads to non-sensical violations of semantic gender agreement. The use of generic he has increasingly been a source of controversy, as it can be perceived as reflecting a positive bias towards men and

1551-460: The perceived limitations of singular they . Currently, these new pronouns are only used by a small percentage of speakers while singular they remains the most widely selected option. Generally speaking, there are three kinds of antecedents with which the singular they can be used. In examples (14-16), subscript i indicates coreference ; moreover, examples such as (15) and (16) are sometimes referred to as 'referential they'. In

1598-422: The person referred to. They further recommend avoiding gender confusion when referring to the background of transgender people, such as using a title or rank to avoid a gendered pronoun or name. For English, there is no universal agreement on a gender-neutral third-person pronoun which could be used for a person whose gender is unknown or who is a non-binary gender identity ; various alternatives are described in

1645-412: The pronoun it can be used of children in some circumstances, for instance when the sex is indefinite or when the writer has no emotional connection to the child, as in a scientific context lsuch as (26). According to The Handbook of Non-Sexist Writing (1995), it is also sometimes the "obvious" choice for children. Examples given include (27a), and the more colloquial (27b). It may even be used when

1692-427: The pronoun itself. Type of antecedent affects acceptability of singular their (subscript i denotes coreference ) Another study found an effect of social distance on speaker judgments of singular they use. Usage was judged to be more acceptable when the speaker was not personally close with the referent, compared to use for referents with whom the speaker was personally close. The authors suggested that, in

1739-421: The reflective pronouns himself or herself (26). In writing, these periphrastic forms are sometimes abbreviated to he/she , (s)he , s/he , him/her , his/her , himself/herself , hers/his , but are not easily abbreviated in verbal communication. With the exception of (s)he and s/he , a writer does in principle have the choice of which pronoun to place first. However, usage indicates that

1786-459: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Thon . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thon&oldid=1132929503 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Disambiguation pages with surname-holder lists Hidden categories: Short description

1833-459: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Thon . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thon&oldid=1132929503 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Disambiguation pages with surname-holder lists Hidden categories: Short description

1880-419: The sex of the referent ; and indefinite pronouns such as quelqu'un ('someone') and personne ('no one') are treated conventionally as masculine, even though personne as a noun ('person') is only feminine regardless of the sex of the referent. (See Grammatical gender § Grammatical gender can be realized on pronouns .) There are both direct and indirect options for nonbinary referents, although

1927-408: The third-person plural personal pronoun they ; the indefinite pronouns one , someone , anyone , etc.; and others) do not make male–female gender distinctions; that is, they are gender-neutral. The only distinction made is between personal and non-personal reference ( someone vs. something , anyone vs. anything , who vs. what , whoever vs. whatever , etc.). She

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1974-788: The twenty-first century, syntactic research differentiates three groups of English speakers which can be identified, based on their judgments about pronoun usage for (14), (15) and (16). A recent study by Kirby Conrod found these speaker groups to be correlated with age and gender identity. Relative to age, participants of all ages accepted the usage in (14), whereas younger participants rated usage of referential they in (15) and (16) higher than did their older counterparts. Relative to gender identity, non-binary and transgender participants rated referential they higher than did cisgender participants. Elsewhere, cisgender speakers with at least one trans or non-binary family member have also been found to rate all three cases as acceptable. Another study found

2021-400: The usage of generic he has declined in favor of other alternatives. To disambiguate contexts where a referent encompasses both males and females, periphrasis is used. Though cumbersome, this solution is attested with the full range of English pronouns, include the subject pronouns he or she (23), the object pronouns him or her (24), the possessive pronoun his or hers (25), and

2068-458: The use of a gender-neutral antecedent (e.g. server or reporter) may signal the irrelevance of gender in the discourse context, making singular they more acceptable. Additionally, having a linguististic antecedent clarified that the speaker was referring to a singular antecedent, rather than a plural one. In the deictic case, without a linguistic antecedent, these signals were not overt, and the speakers' judgment depended more on their experience with

2115-436: The use of singular they is judged to be equally acceptable whether or not the hearer knows the (binary) gender of the referent. In sentences where singular they is purely deictic and has no linguistic antecedent, such as (17b), the use of singular they is judged to be less acceptable than the use of a singular gendered pronoun (such as he or she) when the hearer knows the referent's (binary) gender. The authors suggest that

2162-412: The use of some forms is contested. Example of agreement in a language with grammatical gender A grammatical gender system can erode as observed in languages such as Odia (formerly Oriya), English and Persian. In English, a general system of noun gender has been lost, but gender distinctions are preserved in the third-person singular pronouns. This means that the relation between pronouns and nouns

2209-668: The world (including most Austronesian languages , many East Asian languages , the Quechuan languages , and the Uralic languages ) do not have gender distinctions in personal pronouns, just as most of them lack any system of grammatical gender . In others, such as many of the Niger–Congo languages , there is a system of grammatical gender (or noun classes ), but the divisions are based on classifications other than sex , such as animacy, rationality, or countability. In Swahili , for example,

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