Whether you share them, prefer them or avoid them – pronouns are everywhere. As Laura Paterson, a linguist who specialises in pronouns, tells us, this is a. because they are an essential part of grammar and b. because they are particularly sexy right now. Laura tells us what exactly a pronoun is and why third-person personal pronouns can cause so much controversy, despite the fact that their main job is just to point to things.  

References: 
Paterson, Laura L. The Routledge Handbook of Pronouns. (Routledge, 2024)
Paterson, Laura L. and Gregory, Ian N. Representations of Poverty and Place: Using Geographical Text Analysis to Understand Discourse. (Palgrave, 2018)
Paterson, Laura L. British Pronoun Use, Prescription, and Processing: Linguistic and Social Influences Affecting 'They' and 'He' (Palgrave, 2014)
Ann Leckie
Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time
Ashley Reilly-Thornton
Susan Stryker
Lal Zimman
Gardelle, Laure. “Pronoun Activism and the Power of Animacy” The Routledge Handbook of Pronouns. (Routledge, 2024)
Journal of Language and Discrimination (https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JLD)
Dennis Baron’s What’s Your Pronoun (Liveright, 2020)
Chloe Benjamin’s The Immortalists (‎G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2018)  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. What is a pronoun?
2. Why can pronouns ‘humanise’ characters?
3. Which two uses of singular they do we speak about? Can you think of others?
4. When might the pronoun ‘it’ become important in activism?
5. What are combined pronouns and why are they no longer in fashion?
6. What are some considerations around pronoun sharing that Laura touches on? How do you feel about this?