Generic antecedents Totally Explained

Everything about Generic Antecedents totally explained

Generic antecedents are representives of classes, indicated by a reference in ordinary language (most often a pronoun), where gender is typically unknown or irrelevant. These mostly arise in generalizations and are particularly common in abstract, theoretical or strategic discourse.

Readers of Wikipedia…
The customer in this market…
A typical teenager…
Most species threatened by extinction…
Each of the compounds analaysed…
Frequently, theories or strategies involving generic antecedents require consideration of individuals when designing experiments, or personalizing marketing approaches. The question of an appropriate style for expressing such generic singulars in the English language became politicized in the 1970s.

Grammatical analysis

Pronouns

Pronouns are prototypically words that replace determiner phrases (in other analyses, noun phrases). They exist in most (but not all) languages. The person, thing, phrase, clause or idea they replace is called the antecedent (sometimes referent).

The sun and the moon influence life on Earth. They… Here they is a pronoun; the determiner phrase the sun and the moon is its antecedent. Speakers find pronouns useful when the antecedent is obvious to the hearer from the context.

Personal pronouns

English has many different kinds of pronouns. The most common pronouns in English are the personal pronouns.

Personal pronouns: I, you, she, he, it, we, they

These are so common because nearly all verbs require an explicit subject in English. The range of different pronouns helps make it clear to the hearer exactly what the antecedent is.

Example: The sun and the moon influence life on Earth. It…

Choosing the pronoun it rather than they (above) signals that the sun and the moon are not the antecedent in this case.

Number

I, she, he and it refer to only one person or thing [meaningin usage] and are called singular [labelin grammar]; we refers to more than one person and is called plural. Sometimes you is singular, other times it's plural. This article is about the meaning in various usages of they. The description of a pronoun as either singular or plural is called its grammatical number.

Person

Personal pronouns in many languages can also be described according to whether they refer to the speaker (first person), the listener (second person) or to a third person or thing. I and we are first-person personal pronouns, you is the second-person personal pronoun, and she, he, it and they are all third-person personal pronouns. The description of a pronoun as first, second or third person is called its grammatical person. They is always a third-person, personal pronoun.

Case

English allows speakers to communicate to the hearer even more information than simply the person (1st, 2nd or 3rd) of an antecedent and the number (singular or plural).

Oblique personal pronouns: me, mine, yours, her, hers, him, his, its, us, ours, them, theirs

When the antecedent is not the subject of a sentence, its alternative function [meaningin usage] is marked by a change of pronoun. This is called a change of grammatical case [labelin grammar]. Essentially, English has two cases other than the subject case – the object case and the possessive case. Cases other than the subject case are called oblique cases.

Example: You gave me that book of hers.

You is subject case, me is object case, and hers is possessive case. So when we think about how they is used in English, we also need to consider them and theirs.

Gender

English, like most languages, doesn't have distinct forms to communicate the gender of first and second persons. The genders of speaker and hearer are normally obvious, unambiguous or irrelevant when they're communicating. However, gender distinctions in the third person can be very helpful.

Example: My sister and brother disagree. She likes cars, but he doesn't.

In contrast to the singular, English does not provide options in third-person, personal pronouns to distinguish gender in the plural.

Example: My sisters and brothers disagree. The sisters like cars, but the brothers don't. The following could be used to negate the need for gender distinction, but subsequently leads to the use of a subordinate clause.

Example: My sisters and brothers disagree; the former like cars, but the latter don't. This example is, however, rather clumsy and dated, and would scarcely be used in spoken or written English.

Summary

Practical issue

The issue addressed by this article is based on a contrast in English – the awkwardness of making gender distinctions in the plural and the awkwardness of avoiding them in the singular. Speakers of languages use words both to make distinctions, but also to generalize.

Example of distinction: My mother thinks…, but my father says….

Example of generalization: My parents believe…. What has become controversial among users of English can be seen from the following examples.

All people get hungry, so they eat. OK (All people is plural.)

All people get hungry, so she eats. NOT OK (Grammatical disagreement in number between "people" [plural] and "she" [singular].)

Each one gets thirsty, so they drink. Ambiguous (Do they drink together as implied by plural they, or individually as implied by singular they?)

Each one gets thirsty, so she drinks. Ambiguous (Is "she" generic, or are all members of the group female?)

Each one gets thirsty, so he or she drinks. OK ("He or she" is singular.)

Each one gets thirsty, so ey drinks. OK but rarely used.

When a person is tired, he sleeps. Disputed (Is "he" specific or generic?)

When a person is tired, she sleeps. Disputed (Is "she" specific or generic?)

When a person is tired, it sleeps. NOT OK (Pronouns for objects can't be used to describe people.) English guidelines before the 1980s supported the use of "he" as a singular pronoun that can refer to both men and women (generic usage). (Sometimes "guys" is used in this way in informal situations by younger speakers.) Many recent style guides object to this as sexist and recommend avoiding these constructions. Some speakers prefer to alternate between male and female versions to provide grammatical convenience without the appearance of bias. Other speakers intentionally use female forms as a political or cultural statement against the traditional practice of using the male form.

Traditional solution

Many languages share the same issue with English. The universal traditional solution is based on the fact that the context is always the same – the antecedent is a representative individual of a class, whose gender is unknown or irrelevant. The traditional solution has been to use either feminine or masculine forms of singular pronouns in what is called generic usage. 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's reason to believe the speaker thinks ambitious academics are always female, the use of she in this sentence must be interpreted as a generic use.

Modern problem

It is the overlap of generic use with gender role stereotyping that led to controversy in English.

A nurse should ensure 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, there's very good reason to suppose that the speaker does indeed believe that all nurses are female, or that all bosses are male.

Modern solutions

If a speaker is ideologically opposed to gender role stereotyping, he can use one of the following strategies.

A boss should treat her staff well. (Use of the pronoun opposite to expected gender.)

Bosses should treat their staff well. (Rephrasing the sentence.)

A boss should treat their staff well. (Use of singular they.)

A boss should treat eir staff well. (Rare use of a Spivak pronoun; also see gender-neutral pronouns.)

There is both historical precedent for the third option, as well as popular contemporary usage. However, there are contemporary, as well as historical, style guides that discourage this option.

There are also contexts in which they used with singular generic antecedent leads to ambiguity.

Generic questions wanting specific answers.

Would you like tea or coffee? Yes. Which one?

Would you like tea or coffee? Tea, please.

Did my parents leave a message? Yes they did. Which one?

Did my parents leave a message? Yes, your mother called.

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's good. (Issue: written option only.)

Thon will be happy and so will they. (Issue: none of the invented pronouns – thon, xe, and many others – have been accepted into the language.)

They will be happy and so will they. (Note: "singular" they is clearly awful here.)

The indefinite personal pronoun, one, is suitably singular, personal and indefinite with respect to gender; but its very indefiniteness precludes it taking any antecedent but itself.

One takes care of one's own.

Strictly speaking, it isn't even third person, it's often used as a circumlocution to refer indirectly to speaker or hearer.

One may indeed have done something like that. (But I'm not going to admit that, in fact, I did.)

One would do well to be very careful under the circumstances. (Watch your back!)

Political opinions

Some modern prescriptivists argue from the valid use of they in certain contexts, to making it valid or even mandatory in all. Other prescritivists argue ideologically that generic he should be proscribed. Both these points of view have found many followers; however, they generally don't accurately describe the usage or rationale of the wide range of options common in the English language.

Further Information

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