English has gendered, third-person singular pronouns (he/him/his and she/her/hers) and an inanimate third-person singular pronoun (it/its), but no gender-neutral, third-person singular pronoun. Such a pronoun would have many uses. It might be used by people who identify as gender-nonconforming or by people who do not know another person’s gender, such as parents talking about an unborn child. Analyze the effects of this lack in terms of muted group theory.
What will be an ideal response?
The lack of a gender-neutral, third-person singular pronoun in English is a lexical gap. In terms of muted group theory, this kind of lexical gap can lead to the marginalization of a group of people--in this case, those who do not identify as entirely male or entirely female. Attempts have been made to create new pronouns to fill this gap (such as ae/aer/aers, ze/hir/hirs), but, linguistically speaking, it is very cognitively difficult to create a new member of a closed class of words, like pronouns. It is now popular to use they/them/theirs, but this is awkward in writing as it creates ambiguity. All of these aspects of the absence of this pronoun combine to create difficulties for gender nonconforming people.
You might also like to view...
An exploration of the meanings of the word intelligent is an example of a speech of definition
Indicate whether the statement is true or false.
A certain amount of gossip and small talk at work helps people feel closer to their coworkers
Indicate whether the statement is true or false
The perspective that “communication is interaction” is limited because ______.
a. it fails to account for the correct timing of a message b. it fails to account for the exchange of information between two or more individuals c. it fails to account for the exchange of information between a sender and receiver d. it fails to fully capture what happens when people communicate
According to both the American Psychological Association's (APA) code of ethics and the American Sociological Association's guidelines for research, researchers who use deception in their experiments should "debrief" subjects, but only after the results have been published
Indicate whether the statement is true or false