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A Linguistic Study Of The Third Person Generic Pronoun: Singular They, Philip Roger Anderson

Culminating Projects in English

Societal change is apparent to us in every regard: from government to language. In the area of language, use of pronouns has changed over the centuries and continues to do so today. After decades of passive adherence to a prescriptive rule condemning the use of the pronoun they as a singular form, evidence suggests that this form is accepted by society, consciously or unconsciously, as an alternative for the generic pronoun he.

Prescriptivism has served to shape the English language through the intents, likes, and dislikes of grammarians who have sometimes formed grammar rules to their own liking rather than …