CNN recently published an opinion piece by Columbia University linguist John McWhorter entitled “Goodbye to ‘he’ and ‘she’ and hello to ‘ze’?” which dealt with the state of gender-neutral pronouns in the English language.
Admittedly, the title was a prime example of click-bait, as his piece simply described processes of language change. McWhorter also considered the possibility of the inadvertent introduction of a gender-neutral third singular pronoun, like “ze” or even the semantic broadening of “they.”
The title of the piece provoked quite a firestorm, and all of the top comments on CNN’s Facebook post of the column were vehemently opposed to, and even affronted by, this notion. Two comments stood out: “I don’t think we need to erase pronouns just because a few transgenders are confused about their identity,” and “Why don’t we just ban the use of language altogether. Then we can all grunt our way to political correctness.”
Now, before one gets too outraged, it is crucial to highlight that McWhorter did not argue in favor of the implementation of a gender-neutral pronoun, and I write further, with great certainty, any descriptive linguist worth his/her/zir/hus/their salt would never do such a thing.
McWhorter’s premise in his column is simply that as language changes over time, it is feasible to assert that new, nonbinary conceptions of gender could eventually be reflected by modified pronoun systems as the “bland opposition between ‘he’ and ‘she’ seems increasingly antique, and even insulting, to many,” in his words.
The reaction to the column evidences a lack of awareness as to what linguistics is and what the motivations of linguists are. In a broad conceptualization, linguistics focuses on the link between sound and meaning, which is to say how arbitrary combinations of arbitrary sets of sounds can convey meaning. A fundamental distinction in linguistics is between descriptive and prescriptive approaches. Linguistics opposes the notion that any variety of language is inherently “better” than another and as such would never prescribe a course of linguistic behavior. With all due respect to our respective English teachers, their notions of grammatical correctness were mainly prescriptive and did not reflect language as it is used in the real world. Rather than fall into the trap of linguistic tyranny, linguists are committed to observing and identifying what is possible and manifested in the languages of the world as well as how these patterns can be applied in real-world contexts.
With reference to the subject at hand, it has been widely observed that many speakers struggle to find the right, or even adequate, pronoun to describe individuals who do not embody the traditional binary concept of gender or people who are in the process of transitioning. This reflects the basic notion of agreement: If the features of “he” (masculine, singular, third person) just don’t align with a subject we are referencing in speech who might traditionally be called “he,” then the disconnect gives pause and forces us to search for another word.
Within English, interestingly, all pronouns are gender-neutral except for those of the third-person singular: he, his, him, she, her and hers. Within colloquial English, there is a well-documented tendency to employ the third plural “they” and “their” as a third singular, as in the sentence “Where is the guest? They are outside.” We understand the “they” of the sentence is one person, but we cringe at the sound of “they is outside.”
At this point, one might expect some instructional manual to inform the reader what the most expedient and politically correct choice is.
Unfortunately, for the next many years, linguists will be observing speech communities in the U.S. to see what word, if any, emerges to fill this void.
After all, the process of using language to describe and engage with the world and other people is an intrinsic part of our humanity, and to interfere with this process is crass and crude. So sit back and enjoy the ride, since the English you are speaking today won’t exist tomorrow.
Jordan MacKenzie is a second-year UF linguistics master’s student. His column appears on Wednesdays.
