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Epicenity
Epicenity is the lack of gender distinction, often reducing the emphasis on the masculine to allow the feminine. It includes androgyny – having both masculine and feminine characteristics. The adjective ''gender-neutral'' may describe epicenity (and both terms are associated with the terms ''gender-neutral language'', ''gender-neutral pronoun'', '' gender-blind'', and ''unisex''). Specialized uses In linguistics, an ''epicene'' word has the same form for male and for female referents. In some cases, the term ''common gender'' is also used, but should not be confused with ''common'' or ''appellative'' as a contrary to ''proper'' (as in proper noun). In English, for example, the epicene (or common) nouns ''cousin'' and ''violinist'' can refer to a man or a woman, and so can the epicene (or common) pronoun ''one''. The noun ''stewardess'' and the third-person singular pronouns ''he'' and ''she'' on the other hand are not epicene (or common). [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
They Pronoun Boston Pride
In Modern English, ''they'' is a third-person pronoun relating to a grammatical subject. Morphology In Standard Modern English, ''they'' has five distinct word forms: * ''they'': the nominative (subjective) form * ''them'': the accusative (objective, called the 'oblique'.) and a non-standard determinative form. * ''their:'' the dependent genitive (possessive) form * ''theirs'': independent genitive form * ''themselves'': prototypical reflexive form *''themself'': derivative reflexive form (nonstandard; now chiefly used instead of "himself or herself" as a reflexive epicenity for ''they'' in pronominal reference to a singular referent) History Old English had a single third-person pronoun '' hē'', which had both singular and plural forms, and ''they'' wasn't among them. In or about the start of the 13th century, ''they'' was imported from a Scandinavian source (Old Norse ''þeir'', Old Danish, Old Swedish ''þer'', ''þair''), where it was a masculine plural dem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
