Autore: Fusari, Sabrina
Titolo: Pronoun Wars or a Battle for Inclusion? The Use of Epicene Pronouns and Neopronouns in a Large Corpus of Contemporary English
Periodico: Textus
Anno: 2025 - Fascicolo: 1 - Pagina iniziale: 127 - Pagina finale: 145

This paper examines the role of English epicene (or “genderless”) pronouns in challenging binary gender norms, distinguishing between gender neutral forms (i.e. singular “they” and gender symmetric “he”/ “she”) and gender diverse pronouns (e.g. “ze”, “xe”, “ey”), whose use is more recent and limited in scope. Both pronoun types have sparked controversy, especially due to their association with non-binary identities. The study investigates whether and which epicene pronouns are widely attested in contemporary English, as evidenced in a large electronic language corpus (English Web 2021, or enTenTen2021). Results suggest that while the overall use of epicene pronouns is on the rise, gender-diverse forms are still relatively rare and discourse-specific, i.e., more typical of LGBTQ+ discourses.




SICI: 1824-3967(2025)1<127:PWOABF>2.0.ZU;2-J
Testo completo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.7370/117515
Testo completo alternativo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.7370/117515

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