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Say "Oui" To "We": A Longitudinal Analysis Of Pronouns And Articles In French And English, Colleen Wilkes
Say "Oui" To "We": A Longitudinal Analysis Of Pronouns And Articles In French And English, Colleen Wilkes
Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection
Modern English only uses gender in personal, reflexive, and possessive third person singular pronouns. Modern English also does not use gendered articles, which extends to not assigning an arbitrary gender to inanimate objects. This study examines how recent this aspect of grammar is, and to what degree did cultural interaction with the French throughout history influence the use of gendered pronouns. Two written texts in British English (one in Old English, one in Modern English) and one written text in French are analyzed for elements of grammatical gender embedded within articles, pronouns, and possessive adjectives. The geopolitical influences on incorporating …