Pronoun In English Language

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Introduction: “When someone is referred to with the wrong pronoun, it can make them feel disrespected, invalidated, dismissed, alienated, or dysphoric” (J. M. (Ed.). (2017). Gender pronouns.) This is one of the reasons the LGBT RESOURCE CENTER states as being the most important in order to be careful about which pronouns are used whenever talking to someone who does not identify as the gender they appear to be. In the current time, the LGBT movement, and more specifically, the transgender community has been promoting the idea of “gender pronouns” as something personal, specific and important to have in mind. A pronoun is defined by the Oxford online dictionary as words “used in place of a noun that have already been mentioned or that are already …show more content…

This question will be answered by carrying out research about the evolution of the English language, how English is taught to non-native speakers and a statistical analysis, where English learners will be asked if they were or were not confused by the sudden use of uncommon pronouns in an excerpt from a piece of text that uses them , mostly focusing on the singular “they” rather than on “ze” or “xe”, for instance. After this, I would explain the excerpt to the subjects, then asking if they understood and accepted the idea of a different pronoun being used. Finally, I expect to conclude by answering the question at hand, using a combination of my own statistical research and other bibliographical sources. I also expect to see the impact of slight changes in short words on people who are still in the process of learning English, and if the learning system could adapt to the new …show more content…

As it turns out, these changes in language happened on a natural way, them being integrated seamlessly into language by normal speech and book authors. It is known that the word "thou" in specific fell out of use during the 15th century1, as the word was mainly used informally to refer to a person, while the equivalent "you" was its formal counterpart. "Generally people cite the early urbanisation of England, social mobility, and the desire not to offend as factors favouring the loss of thou.” (Alan Firth, 1996). As more people rose through the social ladder, they used the formal “you” in order to show education and to avoid calling someone of a higher social standing by the wrong word, so the word “thee” stopped being used by most people. At some point this common speech change found its way into most books. The only people who actually kept using the word in their speech were the religious group of the Quakers, who were being persecuted during the British Civil War2, who used thee “intentionally because they associated you with social authority.” (Brian Collins, 2016) This is a clear change in basic English language that came through naturally and could only be held back by the power imposed by tradition and faith. “Many religious groups, such as Mormons, now

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