Genre et pronoms en anglais

The grammatical category of gender, when it is ‘natural’, is a semantic property of linguistic units with independent grammatical functions. In this paper the gender of English pronouns is examined, with special emphasis on personal gender. It is argued that the nominal bases of the indefinite prono...

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Main Author: Pierre Cotte
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires du Midi 2012-11-01
Series:Anglophonia
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/acs/12581
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author Pierre Cotte
author_facet Pierre Cotte
author_sort Pierre Cotte
collection DOAJ
description The grammatical category of gender, when it is ‘natural’, is a semantic property of linguistic units with independent grammatical functions. In this paper the gender of English pronouns is examined, with special emphasis on personal gender. It is argued that the nominal bases of the indefinite pronouns someone, somebody or something signify genders, not just categories. It is also argued that the interrogative pronouns who and what are subsequent to these pronouns logically. The paper finishes with some remarks about the affinities between personal gender and indefiniteness on one hand and sex-based gender and definiteness on the other. These point to a single encompassing system of gender and nominal determination.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1278-3331
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publisher Presses Universitaires du Midi
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spelling doaj-art-7e5a8f8d659042908abab4e795b878592025-01-30T12:33:25ZengPresses Universitaires du MidiAnglophonia1278-33312427-04662012-11-0116253810.4000/anglophonia.137Genre et pronoms en anglaisPierre CotteThe grammatical category of gender, when it is ‘natural’, is a semantic property of linguistic units with independent grammatical functions. In this paper the gender of English pronouns is examined, with special emphasis on personal gender. It is argued that the nominal bases of the indefinite pronouns someone, somebody or something signify genders, not just categories. It is also argued that the interrogative pronouns who and what are subsequent to these pronouns logically. The paper finishes with some remarks about the affinities between personal gender and indefiniteness on one hand and sex-based gender and definiteness on the other. These point to a single encompassing system of gender and nominal determination.https://journals.openedition.org/acs/12581genre grammaticalpronoms indéfinispronoms interrogatifs
spellingShingle Pierre Cotte
Genre et pronoms en anglais
Anglophonia
genre grammatical
pronoms indéfinis
pronoms interrogatifs
title Genre et pronoms en anglais
title_full Genre et pronoms en anglais
title_fullStr Genre et pronoms en anglais
title_full_unstemmed Genre et pronoms en anglais
title_short Genre et pronoms en anglais
title_sort genre et pronoms en anglais
topic genre grammatical
pronoms indéfinis
pronoms interrogatifs
url https://journals.openedition.org/acs/12581
work_keys_str_mv AT pierrecotte genreetpronomsenanglais