The diachronic distribution of singular they, generic he, and he or she construction in English newspaper corpora.

• Název práce v češtině: Diachronní distribuce jednotného "they", generického "they" a konstrukce "he or she" v anglických novinových korpusech.
• Název v anglickém jazyce: The diachronic distribution of singular they, generic he, and he or she construction in English newspaper corpora.
• Klíčová slova: jednotné „they“|zájmena|neznámý referent|gramatický rod|umělá inteligence|korpusová lingvistika
• Klíčová slova anglicky: singular they|pronouns|unknown referent|gender|artificial intelligence|corpus linguistics
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2021/2022
• Typ práce: bakalářská práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Ústav anglického jazyka a didaktiky (21-UAJD)
• Vedoucí / školitel: Mgr. Ondřej Tichý, Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno a potvrzeno stud. odd.
• Datum přihlášení: 28.12.2021
• Datum zadání: 28.12.2021
• Schválení administrátorem: zatím neschvalováno
• Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: 05.01.2022
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 31.01.2023 10:00
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 13.01.2023
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 31.01.2023
• Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: odevzdaná studentem a finalizovaná
• Oponenti: Mgr. Kryštof Beták

Zásady pro vypracování

The primary focus of this BA thesis is the choice of the epicene pronoun in the contexts where the gender of a singular animate referent is unknown or unspecified. Specifically, the use of singular "they" is contrasted with the use of generic "he" and "he or she", "he/she" construction, as their distribution in the written language over the past 20 years is analysed using corpus linguistics.
In the theoretical part, both grammatical and sociolinguistics factors are considered in order to trace the history of prescription for epicene pronouns, focusing specifically on the development of the issue in recent years. The research part documents the choice of epicene pronoun on samples from two web corpora (SiBol: Corpus of English broadsheet newspapers for years 1993-2013 and Timestamped JSI web corpus for years 2014-2020), and analyses its development over the last 20 years. The hypothesis is that the singular "they" form grows in popularity while the use of generic "he" declines, and potential sociolinguistics reasons for that change are examined.

Práce bude sepsána v anglickém jazyce.

Seznam odborné literatury

Baron, Dennis E. “The Epicene Pronoun: The Word That Failed.” American Speech, vol. 56, no. 2, 1981, pp. 83–97. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/455007.
Bodine, Ann. “Androcentrism in Prescriptive Grammar: Singular 'They', Sex-Indefinite 'He', and 'He or She'.” Language in Society, vol. 4, no. 2, 1975, pp. 129–146. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4166805.
Burchfield, Robert. Fowler's Modern English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004
Coates, Jennifer. Women, Men and Language. London: Longman. 2013 Newman, Michael. “Pronominal Disagreements: The Stubborn Problem of Singular Epicene Antecedents.” Language in Society, vol. 21, no. 3, 1992, pp. 447–475. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4168370.
Paterson, Laura Louise. “The Use and Prescription of Epicene Pronouns: A Corpus-based Approach to Generic He and Singular They in British English”. 2019.
Quirk, Randolph et al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman. 1985.
Zuber, Sharon, and Ann M. Reed. “The Politics of Grammar Handbooks: Generic He and Singular They.” College English, vol. 55, no. 5, 1993, pp. 515–530. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/378587.