This original volume provides the first state-of-the-art overview of research on pronouns in the 21st century. With its dedicated sections on grammar, history, and change, language learning/acquisition, cognition and comprehension, power, politics, and identity, The Routledge Handbook of Pronouns shows that contemporary interest in pronouns and gender represents just the tip of the iceberg.
Led by Laura Paterson, a transdisciplinary collection of experts discuss the global history of different pronoun systems, synthesize the literature, and contextualize the salient issues and current debates shaping research on pronouns across different spheres and via different theoretical-methodological traditions. The Handbook is designed to encourage readers to engage with a range of perspectives from within and beyond their immediate areas of interest, with the ultimate aim of shaping the future trajectory of interdisciplinary, multiingual research on pronouns.
Using data from multiple languages and engaging deeply with the social, cultural, political, technological, and psychological factors that can influence pronoun use, this innovative book will be an indispensable resource to scholars and advanced students of theoretical and applied linguistics, education, and the social and behavioural sciences.
1 The little words that mean a lot
Laura L. Paterson
PART 1: HISTORY AND CHANGE
2 Variation in pronoun typologies
Heather Bliss, Richard Compton and Dennis Ryan Storoshenko
3 A history of personal pronouns in Standard English
Mikko Laitinen
4 On the alleged stability of pronouns: The influence of language contact and social intervention
Peter Siemund
5 Grammaticalization as a process for pronoun change
Gunther De Voglaer
6 The future of pronouns in the online/offline nexus
Brian King and Archie Crowley
PART 2: PROCESSING AND CATEGORISATION
7 Pronouns in the brain
Joanna Porkert, Hanneke Loerts, Anja Schüppert and Merel Keijzer
8 Pronouns and aphasia
Eleni Peristeri
9 Pronoun comprehension
Jennifer E. Arnold
10 Personal pronouns and noun phrases as shifters in Southeast Asian languages
Dwi Noverini Djenar
11 Alternative pronominal items: Noncanonical pronouns in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Afrikaans
Chenchen Song, Li Nguyen and Theresa Biberauer
PART 3: ACQUISITION AND LANGUAGE LEARNING
12 How children acquire L1 pronouns
Petra Hendriks
13 Bilingual acquisition: More object pronouns at once
Katrin Schmitz
14 Deixis in the manual modality: Insights from diverse signing communication systems
Jenny C. Lu and Diane Lillo-Martin
15 Acquisition of Pronouns in Creole Languages
Dany Adone and Tamirand De Lisser
16 Use of anaphoric reference by second language writers: From empirical data to pedagogy in the classroom
Masumi Narita and Mark Freiermuth
PART 4: MAKING PRONOUNS PERSONAL
17 T/V in the 21st century: A case study of French
Kimberley Pager-McClymont, Sarah Eichhorn and Amélie Doche
18 Pronouns as shibboleths: Prescriptive attitudes to case forms
Linda Pillière
19 Identifying who uses first person singular pronouns and the psychological impacts this language may have
Logan C. Delgado and Nicholas S. Holtzman
20 Strategic uses of pronoun drop in economic decision making
Tai-Sen He
21 What does it mean when a computer says I?
Andrew Gargett
PART 5: POWER AND POLITICS
22 The role of pronouns in the race debate: George Floyd and BLM protests
Zeynep Cihan Koca-Helvaci
23 'They really eat anything don't they?': Pronoun use in Covid-19-related Anti-Asian racism
Ursula Kania
24 Pronoun use in cross-cultural therapy sessions
Nahed Arafat
25 Politicians’ pronouns: who is 'we'? Negotiating national collectivities in Taiwan’s authoritarian period
Jennifer M. Wei
26 Strategic use of pronouns among Lingua Franca English users in a university project-based learning programme
Satomi Ura and Hiromasa Tanaka
27 Pronoun activism and the power of animacy
Laure Gardelle
PART 6: GENDERED PRONOUNS AND BEYOND
28 Epicene pronouns new and old
Charlotte Stormbom
29 Gender-neutrality and clitics
Ashley Reilly-Thornton
30 Gender binaries in constructed languages
Angela Zottola
31 Non-binary singular they
Lex Konnelly, Kirby Conrod and Evan D. Bradley
32 Individuals' pronoun choice: A case study of transgender speakers in Berlin, Germany
Olga Steriopolo and Harley Aussoleil
33 Misgendering in the media
Kat Gupta
Biography
Laura L. Paterson is Senior Lecturer at The Open University, UK, and one of the founding editors of the Journal of Language and Discrimination.
In this thought-provoking book, the authors explore the profound role of pronouns in how we enact our identities and relationships through language. With remarkable insights, they illuminate in detail the often-overlooked functions that pronouns serve in construing the multifaceted aspects of the human experience.
Michele Zappavigna, Associate Professor of Digital Communication, University of New South Wales, Australia
No stone is left unturned in The Routledge Handbook of Pronouns, with inspiring contributions by world-leading scholars, offering innovative analyses from all angles. Highly recommended for linguists, psychologists, neuroscientists, students, teachers and a general readership.
Lucía Loureiro-Porto, Associate Professor in English, University of the Balearic Islands, Spain
A welcome wealth of resources for the study of pronouns, the small giants in language processing. A must-read for seasoned scholars as well as for aspiring ones.
Luis H. González, Professor of Spanish and Linguistics, Wake Forest University, USA
