The Use of Gendered Pronouns with Animal Referents in English

Abstract

Speakers and writers of English can choose whether to mark a high level of sentience in a nonhuman animal by selecting the human and gendered terms (he, she, who) rather than the inanimate and ungendered terms (it, which). This paper reports an investigation of the Anglo-American literature to explore the extent to which speakers and writers use gendered pronouns ‘he’ and ‘she’ where the antecedent is a nonhuman animal. We also attempt to identify pragmatic factors and metaphoric associations that trigger personalizing of animals in literature and everyday conversations.

Cuvinte-cheie: pronume care desemnează fiinţe, referent animal, ternemi

REZUMAT

Vorbitorii şi scriitorii de limba engleză pot alege să atribuie un nivel ridicat de conștiință unei fiinţe non-umane, utilizând, cu raportare la ea, unităţi de tipul „el”, „ea”, „cine”, mai degrabă decât elemente care desemnează realităţi inanimate de tipul „acesta”, „care” etc. Această lucrare prezintă o investigație a literaturii anglo-americane în vederea constatării în ce măsura utilizatorii folosesc pronumele „el” și „ea” pentru desemnarea unei fiinţe non-umane. De asemenea, încercăm să identificăm factorii pragmatici și asocierile metaforice care declanșează personalizarea animalelor în literatură și în conversațiile cotidiene.

LANGUAGE OF PUBLICATION

English (main text and corpus)

UDC: 811.111`367.626

REFERENCES

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Corpus

Agee, J. (1998). A death in the family. Vintage Books.

Aldrich, B. S. (1997). A Lantern in Her Hand. Puffin Books, 1997.

Anderson, K. J., Beason, D. (2007). Ill Wind: The Oil Crisis has begun. A Tom Doherty Associates Book.

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Berriault, G. (1997). Women in Their Beds. New and Selected Stories. Counter Point.

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Proulx, A. (1999). The Half-Skinned Steer. In: J. Updike (Ed.), K. Kenison (Coed.). The Best American Short Stories of the Century. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Singer, I. B. (1970). The Key. In: J. Updike (Ed.), K. Kenison (Coed.). The Best American Short Stories of the Century. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Received: August, 10, 2012 | Reviewed: August 22, 2012 | Accepted for publication: August 26, 2012

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