View source for Generic antecedent

{{short description|Representatives of classes in a situation in which gender is typically unknown}}
{{more citations needed|date=February 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}

'''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.<ref>Mark Balhorn, [http://eng.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/32/2/79 'The Rise of Epicene They'], ''Journal of English Linguistics'' 32 (2004): 79–104.</ref> These mostly arise in generalizations and are particularly common in [[abstraction (sociology)|abstract]], theoretical or strategic discourse. Examples (with the [[antecedent (grammar)|antecedent]] in boldface and the referring pronoun in italics) include "'''readers''' of Wikipedia appreciate ''their'' encyclopedia",  "the '''customer''' ''who'' spends in this market".

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.<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/64/5.html 'Gender'], in ''The American Heritage Book of English Usage: A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English'', (Boston: [[Houghton Mifflin|Houghton Mifflin Company]], 1996).</ref>

==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 gender]] 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 in the relevant context, the use of ''she'' in this sentence must be interpreted as a generic use. Traditionally both ''he'' and ''they'' were used for this purpose but, particularly since the nineteenth century, English style guides have frequently recommended the otherwise masculine ''he'' as a singular generic pronoun. Since the middle of the twentieth century the use of ''he'' for this purpose has been discouraged, partly because use of ''he'' is perceived as subtly biasing the listener to assume the antecedent is masculine. [[Third-person pronoun#Alternatives to generic he|Various alternatives]] have been proposed.

===French===

In French 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 [[pinyin]] 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 is a thing, either specific or generic (such as a snowman),<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P4u0AwAAQBAJ&dq=snowman+antecedent&pg=PA105 | title=Noun Valency| isbn=9789027269980| last1=Spevak| first1=Olga| date=15 June 2014| publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company}}</ref> 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 it, 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 indeterminate, as the reference is equally to a hypothetical male or a hypothetical female). In particular, the overlap of generic use with [[gender role]] [[stereotype|stereotyping]] has led to controversy in English.<ref>Julie Foertsch and Morton Ann Gernsbacher, [http://step.psy.cmu.edu/articles/Foertsch.pdf 'In Search of Gender Neutrality: Is Singular They a Cognitively Efficient Substitute for Generic He?'] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070621044108/http://step.psy.cmu.edu/articles/Foertsch.pdf |date=21 June 2007 }} ''Psychological Science'' 8 (1997): 106–111.</ref>

* A '''nurse''' should ensure that '''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-unspecific. 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:<ref>{{cite thesis|title=Gender in English pronouns: Myth and reality|author=Susanne Wagner|url=http://www.freidok.uni-freiburg.de/volltexte/1412/pdf/Diss_Freidok.pdf|date=22 July 2004|publisher=[[Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg|Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg]]|type=Doctoral thesis }}</ref>

* 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''. Examples of accepted, disputed, and impossible constructions in English include:

* [[Image:Green check.svg|25px]] '''All''' people get hungry, so '''they''' eat. '''Acceptable''' (''All people'' is plural.)
* [[Image:Stop hand.svg|25px]] '''All''' people get hungry, so '''she''' eats. '''Incorrect''' if ''all people'' is the intended antecedent of ''she'' (singular pronoun cannot have a plural antecedent.)
* [[Image:Gtk-dialog-question.svg|25px]] '''Each''' one gets thirsty, so '''he''' drinks. '''Disputed''' (Is ''he'' generic, or are all members of the group male?)
* [[Image:Gtk-dialog-question.svg|25px]] '''Each''' one gets thirsty, so '''they''' drink. '''Acceptable''' Long in use (by [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], for example); condemned by some older sources, such as ''[[The Elements of Style]]'', but endorsed by many modern style guides.
* [[Image:Gtk-dialog-question.svg|25px]] '''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.
* [[Image:Gtk-dialog-question.svg|25px]] When '''a person''' is tired, '''she''' sleeps. '''Disputed''' (Is ''she'' specific or generic?)

English guidelines before the 1980s supported the use of ''he'' as a singular pronoun that can refer to both men and women (generic usage). Use of the generic ''he'', however, has been decreasing since the 1960s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pauwels |first=Anne |year=2003 |chapter=<!--24. -->Linguistic sexism and feminist linguistic activism |title=The Handbook of Language and Gender |url=https://archive.org/details/handbooklanguage00holm |url-access=limited |editor=Holmes, Janet |editor2=Meyerhoff Miriam|location=Malden, [[Massachusetts|MA]] |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=0-631-22502-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/handbooklanguage00holm/page/n578 563]}}</ref>

Many recent style guides discourage generic constructions or accept approaches other than the generic ''he''. 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. A study of English language usage over the past twenty years shows that ''they'' is now the most common way that modern speakers and writers refer back to generic antecedents.<ref name=NIV>[http://www.niv-cbt.org/niv-2011-overview/translators-notes/ Updating the New International Version of the Bible: Notes from the Committee on Bible Translation]</ref>

===Modern solutions===
{{Update|section|date=February 2021}}
Speakers opposed to gender role stereotyping often use one of the following strategies.<ref>Michael Quinion, [http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/genpr.htm 'Gender-Neutral Pronouns'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081015173414/http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/genpr.htm |date=15 October 2008 }}, 2002.</ref>
* A '''boss''' should treat '''her''' staff well. (Use of the pronoun ''opposite'' to expected gender)
* '''Bosses''' should treat '''their''' staffs 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 they]], incorrect in formal English according to some sources, especially older or traditional ones, but accepted by others).
* A '''boss''' should treat '''eir''' staff well. (Rare use of a [[Spivak pronoun]]; also see [[gender-neutral pronoun]].)

There is historical precedent for the third option<ref>"A person can't help their birth." [[William Makepeace Thackeray]], ''[[Vanity Fair (novel)|Vanity Fair]]'', 1848, [http://thackeray.thefreelibrary.com/Vanity-Fair/41-1 c. 41].</ref> as well as popular contemporary usage.<ref name=NIV /> However, there are contemporary, as well as historical, [[style guide]]s that discourage this option.  In 2000, the [[The_American_Heritage_Dictionary_of_the_English_Language#Usage_panel|Usage Panel of ''The American Heritage Dictionary'']] wrote:  
{{cquote|Most of the Usage Panelists reject the use of ''they'' with singular antecedents.<ref>"This group of some 200 distinguished educators, writers, and public speakers enriches [the] dictionary with their judgments concerning difficult or disputed usage. Most of its members are writers, editors, critics, or educators while others hold distinguished positions in law, government, diplomacy, medicine, science, business, and the arts." See [http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/epub/ahd4.shtml The American Heritage Usage Panel].</ref> Eighty-two percent find the sentence ''The typical student in the program takes about six years to complete their course work'' unacceptable. … Panel members do seem to distinguish between singular nouns, such as ''the typical student'', and pronouns that are grammatically singular but semantically plural, such as ''anyone'' and ''everyone''.<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/61/22/T0162200.html 'They'], ''[[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]]'', Fourth edition, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000).</ref>
}}

By their 2022 update, the dictionary reported "their resistance has declined over time":

{{cquote|Resistance remains strongest when the sentence refers to a specific individual whose gender is unknown, rather than to a generic individual representative of anyone: in our 2015 survey, 58 percent of the Panel found ''We thank the anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments'' unacceptable. A sentence with a generic antecedent, ''A person at that level should not have to keep track of the hours they put in'', was rejected by 48 percent (a substantial change from our 1996 survey, in which 80 percent rejected this same sentence).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=they |title=They |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2022 |website=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |access-date=2024-08-28 }}</ref>}}

===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 – [[Gender-neutral pronoun#Neologisms|thon]], xe, and many others – have been accepted into the language.)<ref>Dennis Baron, [http://www.english.uiuc.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/epicene.htm 'The Epicene Pronouns: A Chronology of the Word That Failed'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061203020543/http://www.english.uiuc.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/epicene.htm |date=3 December 2006 }}, 2006.</ref>

The indefinite personal pronoun, ''[[one (pronoun)|one]]'', is suitably singular and unspecific with respect to gender; but it can take only "one" as an antecedent.
* '''One''' takes care of '''one's''' own.

===Opinions===
Some modern [[Linguistic prescription|prescriptivists]] argue from the valid use of ''they'' in certain contexts, to making it valid or even mandatory in all. Other prescriptivists argue 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.
{{cquote|The reforms involving gender are explicitly political in intent and represent a quest for social justice rather than a wish for more consistent logic. And unlike other political language reforms, which tend to be limited to individual names for ethnic groups, gender reforms involve basic grammatical components like pronouns, basic grammatical rules like pronoun agreement, and basic words like ''man'', ''father'', ''male'' and ''female''. Some of these elements have been in the language for over a thousand years. It is not surprising, therefore, that the effort to undo them can often be a difficult and untidy business.<ref>'Gender', in ''The American Heritage Book of English Usage'', work cited.</ref>}}

== See also ==
* {{annotated link|Donkey sentence}}
* {{annotated link|Epicenity}}
* {{annotated link|Gnomic aspect|aka=generic mood}}
* {{annotated link|Generic you}}
* {{annotated link|Indefinite pronoun}}
* {{annotated link|Markedness}}
* {{annotated link|Quantificational variability effect}}
* {{annotated link|Singular they}}
* {{annotated link|Third-person pronoun}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
*Carlson, Greg. ''Reference to Kinds in English''. [[Dissertation|PhD Thesis]]. [[University of Massachusetts Amherst]], 1977.
*[[Henriette de Swart|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''. [[Dissertation|PhD Thesis]]. [[University of Massachusetts Amherst]], 1991.

== External links ==
{{Wiktionary|generic}}
* 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. "[http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pycha/Pycha_LSA2005.pdf Anaphora in African-American English]." Oakland: Linguistics Society of America, 2005.
* Jeffrey T. Runner and Elsi Kaiser. "[http://csli-publications.stanford.edu/HPSG/6/runner-kaiser.pdf Binding in Picture Noun Phrases:] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060918131115/http://csli-publications.stanford.edu/HPSG/6/runner-kaiser.pdf |date=2006-09-18 }} Implications for Binding Theory." In ''Proceedings of the HPSG05 Conference''. Edited by Stefan Müller. Lisbon: CSLI Publications, 2005.
* Marta Luján. "[http://www.ucm.es/info/circulo/no9/lujan.htm Determiners as Modified Pronouns]." ''Círculo de lingüística aplicada a la comunicación'' '''9''' (2002).

{{English gender-neutral pronouns}}
{{Formal semantics}}

[[Category:English usage controversies]]
[[Category:Gender-neutral language]]
[[Category:Grammatical gender]]
[[Category:Personal pronouns]]
[[Category:Grammatical number]]
[[Category:Language varieties and styles]]
[[Category:Pronouns]]
[[Category:Sociolinguistics]]