Inclusive Language and the Contested Space Between the Proper and the Improper: Re-envisioning Pronouns and the Articulation of Queer Experience
Presenter Title/Affiliation
Augustana University
Start Date
22-5-2021 1:30 PM
Event Name
Panel discussion
Panel Number
15
Panel Chair Name
Ericka Burns
Zoom URL to Join
https://ciis.zoom.us/j/91550704212
Zoom Meeting ID
915 5070 4212
Abstract
Familiarity with gender-neutral pronouns continues to increase as speakers of English identify as “they,” “xe,” and other non-binary options with greater frequency. Concurrently, many educators and activists are mindful to avoid gender-coded language altogether. As of 2019, the Merriam-Webster dictionary now includes the non-binary “they,” and yet persistent resistance to gender-neutral pronouns undeniably remains on many levels. In the everyday, this resistance manifests in statements like “I’m willing to call people what they want to be called, but I won’t be ungrammatical” and “it’s just hard to remember which pronouns to use.” In the case of formal writing, style guides favor restructuring the sentence to avoid non-binary pronouns—which is to say, to render the non-binary invisible.
Our provocation intervenes in these ongoing debates by providing an alternate framework that leverages sensibilities already embedded in English grammar (e.g., proper nouns and proper adjectives) while making room for the articulation of queer experience untethered from gender altogether. Whereas third-person singular pronouns have always been improper because they govern access to linguistic agency by relegating subjects to the negotiation of a binary construct, we propose an eighth class of pronouns: proper pronouns. Unlike personal pronouns, which remain inflected by gender even when they resist the binary, proper pronouns circumvent gender as a linguistic category. Proper pronouns refer only to an individual’s preferred name. This presentation defines and details the usage of proper pronouns in both common language and formal writing.
Presenter Contact
kikikosnick@augustana.edu
vickiephipps@augustana.edu
Inclusive Language and the Contested Space Between the Proper and the Improper: Re-envisioning Pronouns and the Articulation of Queer Experience
Familiarity with gender-neutral pronouns continues to increase as speakers of English identify as “they,” “xe,” and other non-binary options with greater frequency. Concurrently, many educators and activists are mindful to avoid gender-coded language altogether. As of 2019, the Merriam-Webster dictionary now includes the non-binary “they,” and yet persistent resistance to gender-neutral pronouns undeniably remains on many levels. In the everyday, this resistance manifests in statements like “I’m willing to call people what they want to be called, but I won’t be ungrammatical” and “it’s just hard to remember which pronouns to use.” In the case of formal writing, style guides favor restructuring the sentence to avoid non-binary pronouns—which is to say, to render the non-binary invisible.
Our provocation intervenes in these ongoing debates by providing an alternate framework that leverages sensibilities already embedded in English grammar (e.g., proper nouns and proper adjectives) while making room for the articulation of queer experience untethered from gender altogether. Whereas third-person singular pronouns have always been improper because they govern access to linguistic agency by relegating subjects to the negotiation of a binary construct, we propose an eighth class of pronouns: proper pronouns. Unlike personal pronouns, which remain inflected by gender even when they resist the binary, proper pronouns circumvent gender as a linguistic category. Proper pronouns refer only to an individual’s preferred name. This presentation defines and details the usage of proper pronouns in both common language and formal writing.
https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/lavlang/2021/saturday/21
