What's Your Pronoun?: Beyond He and She

Dennis Baron
online access from ProQuest Ebook Central Perpetual Titles
check holdings in CityU LibraryFind
check resources on the same subject in CityU LibraryFind

“If you want to know why more people are asking ‘what’s your pronoun?’ then you (singular or plural) should read this book.” ―Joe Moran, New York Times Book Review

Heralded as “required reading” (Geoff Nunberg) and “the book” (Anne Fadiman) for anyone interested in the conversation swirling around gender-neutral and nonbinary pronouns, What’s Your Pronoun? is a classic in the making. Providing much-needed historical context and analysis to the debate around what we call ourselves, Dennis Baron brings new insight to a centuries-old topic and illuminates how―and why―these pronouns are sparking confusion and prompting new policies in schools, workplaces, and even statehouses. Enlightening and affirming, What’s Your Pronoun? introduces a new way of thinking about language, gender, and how they intersect. 20 black-and-white illustrations

"An entertaining and thoroughly documented account of two centuries’ worth of attempts to solve the problem of the English language’s “missing word”.... [Baron] digs deeply into the legal and cultural implications of pronoun usage.... [His] ‘annotated historical lexicon’ of more than 250 gender-neutral pronouns [is] a gold mine for readers who delight in the strangeness of language, as well as a clear demonstration of the thorniness of the issue. This easygoing, comprehensive guide will appeal to progressive word geeks." ― Publishers Weekly

"A thorough history of pronoun debates.... Guggenheim fellow Baron examines what seems like a contemporary question with a historical lens. In this primer, he reveals a centuries-long search for a singular gender-neutral pronoun in English, dispelling persistent myths that such a quest is a recent effort or the product of politically correct motivations.... The author's playful tone imbues the text with friendly sensitivity, and readers will appreciate his decades of research and meticulous attention to documents and sources. The result is a book that reflects the transformational capacity of language. A lively book for language lovers, those confused about uses of they/them, and anyone curious about writing while gendered." ― Kirkus Reviews

(Excerpt from amazon.com)