Non-binarythirdpersonreflexivesinEnglish,andtheconstruc:onofiden:ty

DennisRyanStoroshenkoUniversityofCalgary

PresentedatTHEY,HIRSELF,EMandYOU2019June11-23,2019Kingston,ON

theyanddefinitereferentsEnglishthey/them/theirarewell-aTestedassingularforms

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Bjorkman(2017)andConrod(2018)bothnotethatvariablebindingfacilitatessingularusageofthesepronouns:

Thissuggeststhattheth-formsarenotspellingoutplurality,theyarespellingoutalackofspecifica:on.

(1)Someonele_theirjockstrapinthelockerroom.

(2)Thatguywesawle_theirjockstrapinthelockerroom.(3)?Wolfgangle_theirjockstrapinthelockerroom.

Definitenessmarginallyinhibitsacceptabilityofthesentenceforsomespeakers:

-selfandbindingConrod(2018)alsonotesthatboundformstendtohavestricteragreementwiththeirantecedentsthanreferen:alpronouns

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Kratzer(2009)arguesthatreflexivesarebuiltfromtheinterac:onbetweenafeaturelessvariable,abinderatv,andtheφ-featuresoftheantecedent

Theresul:ngfeaturebundlegetsitsfinalforma_erspellout

(4)Nomi[v’λn[hurtn]]

transmission

➔“Nomihurtherself.”

unifica:on3SgF REFL

Reflexive(-self)formsaremostlikelytobeconsideredbound.

Underthisview,ath-reflexiveshouldonlyemergeifaverylimitedsetoffeaturesistransferred.

Spellingout-selvesInasingularcontextthough,nomaTerwhat(ifany)genderfeaturesmightbetransmiTed,nothingshouldtriggerthepluralaffixthatgivesus-selves

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Firstques:on:is-selvesreallyplural?

Relatedques:on:doesprescrip:vepressuretouse-selvesextendintonon-binaryorneopronounuses?

SPOILER:Theanswerswillbe“sortof”and“no,notreally”.

AboutthoseneopronounsRaymond(2016)examinesthechoiceoftú/vos/ustedinSpanish

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Thechoicesbetweenpronouns(includingaddi:onaldeferen:alforms)isdescribedasdoingmorethanreferring;speakeriden:tyandtherela:onshipbetweeninterlocutorsisbeingconstructed

AssuggestedinConrod’s2019LSAtalk,thechoiceofthirdpersonpronouncanbeconceivedofasasimilartypeofiden:tybuilding.

Otherbigques:on:WillpaTernsemergeinthechoicesofneopronounreflexives?

Lastspoiler:Yes,butsomeunexpectedthingsemerge.

Gameplan

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Firsttalkaboutth-forms

Highlightsfromtheneopronounparadigms

th-reflexivesearchGlobalsearchofTwiTerusingtwiTeR(Gentry2015)inJune2018

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Searchedforthemostrecent5000tweetscontainingath-reflexive

theyself(355) theyselves(67)

themself(1800) themselves(1171)

theirself(322) theirselves(1649)

Filteringforretweetsandotherobviousreduplica:ons,robustcorporafor5forms:

Thenumberasymmetrymakesstatstricky,justgoingtoreporttrendsfrompropor:ons

th-reflexivecodingCodedforfourmainvariables:

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Numberofantecedent(singularorplural)

Typeofantecedent(Definiteness,quan:fier,etc…)“Isthisaboundvariable?”

Func:onofthereflexive

Animacyofantecedent(animateorinanimate)

Thiswasallpar:allyinaidofanotherresearchques:onaroundwhetherthespecificth-formsrelatedtoboundvariableuses

Pluralform,context,andbinding

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themselvesandtheirselvesareatabout12-13%singularuse;theyselvesonly3%

themselfismajoritysingular(58%)whiletheirselfis36%singular;theyself23%

The-selvesformsderivepropor:onallymoreoftheirsingularusesfromboundvariablecontextsthanthe-selfforms

Someclearcasesshowingthatevenwhengenderisknown,itisnotexpressed:

(5)...he’sjustjustsomeonecallingthemselfavegantogetariseoutofus.

Thatwegetanysingularusesatallwith-selvesisgoingtobeanopenques:onfortheKratzer(2009)story

Theclearoutlier

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Thethey-formsarethemostconserva:ve(leastlikelytobesingularorbound)

Theyarealsothemostsociolinguis:callycohesive;theybelongtoAfricanAmericanEnglish

ThestoryIwassellinglastweekisthatthisisareanalyzedtheirselfretainingagrammarwherethereisamorear:culatedsyntac:cstructure

th-formsandiden:ty

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Contrarytoprescrip:vistdreams,th-isnotspellingoutplurality

Inthereflexiveparadigm,thisiseveneasiertopullout,asthere’sasecondarywaytomakeanumbercontrastwhichisalsobeingavoided

But,there’ssome(slight)evidencethateven-selvesislosingpluralityinthewiderpopula:on

Thegrammarseemstobetolerantofsingularth-reflexives,buttheyaresowidespreadastonotconstructauniqueiden:tyforusers

Theysel(f|ves)isclearlyasociolinguis:cmarker,butitisnotSOGI

Refreshingtheresearchques:ons

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Willthisbleachingofpluralityfrom-selvesextendintoneopronounsthatarebeingusedtoconstructuniqueiden::es?

Arespecificneopronounsassociatedwithanyothervariables?

Collec:ngneopronounforms

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SametwiTeRtool,buttwofour-weekwindows(July2018andMay2019)

NeopronounreflexiveformsweregatheredfromvariouslistsandfedintoanRscriptthatranonceaweekforfourweeks(consistentoverlapincollec:onwindows)

680in2018data,only515inthe2019data

Inbothcases,onlyabout5%oftheusagewasinfullsentencesasanapparentconstruc:onofsomeformofqueeriden:ty

Onlytwoorthreereallynoteworthychangesindistribu:onfrom2018to2019

Codingneopronounforms

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Theclearestwaytogowastocodebywhattheywerebeingusedfor:

LegitUse:Theformisusedinatleastasentencefragment,otherevidenceofinten:onalusage(e.g.matchingpronouns)ispresent.Userprofileshowingapronounparadigmisalsoagoodsign,butcan’tlooklikeitmightjustbeatypo.

Educa6onal:Thetweetismeanttoeducatetheaudienceontheuseofnon-binarypronounsorothergenderrelatedissues.Overallsenseisthatthepronounisthesubjectofdiscussion,butinaposi:velight.

BotArt:Thetweetistheresultofascriptcrea:nganartproject.Thiscanbecapturedbyformulaictweets,aswellasmetadataandasetfrequencyoftweetsperday.

Codingneopronounforms(cont)

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FalsePosi6ve:ThetweetshowsotherdialectalfeaturesincludingWorldEnglishes,orinten:onalironicmisspellingwithnosenseofmalice(towardthequeercommunity).

Hate/Irony:Thetweetismeanttodenigratequeernon-binaryiden:ty,orexpressotherassociatedsociallyconserva:veviews.

Ques6onable:Thereisclearqueeriden:typresentintheprofileoftheuserand/orcontentofthetweet,butlookslikeitmightbeatypo(oddlyonlyforoneform).

Prescrip6vism:Thetweetisexpressingalanguageautude,butnoexplicitmen:onofiden:ty(onlyrelevanttotheWorldEnglishtweets)

TheBots

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Theseappeartobebotscodedtoproduceformulaictextwithveryrobustpronounparadigms

Somearepurecomedyorart,othersaremoreprac:cal(e.g.crea:ngD&Dcharacterprofiles)

Theseare10%ofbothdatasets,spreadacrossmanyforms

Perself,thonself,virselfonlyshowupinthesetweetsor“Educa:onal”pronounlists

Theem-forms

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In2018,emselfwasthemostfrequentLegitUse;notusedinthiswayatallinthe2019set

Emselfandemselves(possiblywithapostrophe)arethemostcommonformsoverall,butmostlyFalsePosi:vecomingfromUK/Irish/AustralianEnglish

Emselveswastheonlyformwitha-vesendingtocomeclosetobeingcodedasLegitUse(also2018)

humself

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Inthetopfivemostfrequentforbothdatasets

Obviouslycouldjustbetypos(onekeyoff),butatleastoneisaFinnegan’sWakebot

AlloftheQues:onableuses(only9)arehere,showingupinthirdpersonnarra:ves

faeself

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Theonlyonethatshowsupasapointofconten:onwithinthecommunity(andonlyassuch)

Nobodyisusingitinthedata,butpeopletalkaboutit.

eirself,verself,xyrselfandzemself

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RareonesthatareonlysharedbetweenLegitUseandBots

eirselfandverselfonlyappearinthe2019dataasusedbyhumans

zemselvesalsoshowsup,butit’sclearlypeoplemockingaFrenchaccent

xerself,zerself,zirself

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Inthe2018dataset,allaremixedbetweenLegitUseandHate/Irony(withhighernumbersforthehatefuluses)

Inbothdatasets,thesearethetopthreeusedasinsults

Inthe2019dataset,LegitUsehasbackedofffromxerselfandzerself.Zirselfs:llhasoneuse.

Allthreeoftheseretainthe/r/fromher,sugges:ngthatthoseusingneopronounsasinsultsarealsoinformedbymisogyny.

hirself

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Inthe2018dataset,thiswasthesecond-highestcountforLegitUse,andnoHate/Irony

Inthe2019dataset,thisistheclearleader,withemselfhavingfallenoff

However,theHate/Ironyisstar:ngtocreepintothisformtoo

Conclusions

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Themselfasasingularalreadyhasafootholdinthegrammar,butnostrongsenseofadis:nctiden:ty

Someneopronounformsforreflexivesoverlapwithothervarie:esofEnglish,mostnotablyemselfwhichseemstohavedroppedoff

Thecompound-likenatureoftheEnglishreflexiveallowsmoreroomforcrea:vityinthefirstmorpheme,construc:ngmul:pleiden::es

Thereseemstobeashi_ingturfwar,withtheformsretainingan/r/morelikelytobeusedasslurs

Acknowledgements&References

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Thanksfirstofalltotheorganizersforpuungonthisworkshop.ThanksalsotoallofthepeopleoftwiTerforprovidingdata,andthehandfuloffriendsbackinCalgarywhohavebeenfieldingrepeatedques:onsaboutwhetherornottheyhaveheardofsomeculturalreferencethatgoesovermyhead.

Bjorkman,BronwynM.2017.Singulartheyandthesyntac:crepresenta:onofgenderinEnglish.Glossa2:80.

Conrod,Kirby.2018.WhatdoesitmeantoAgree?coreferencewithsingularthey.PosterpresentedatPronounsinCompeHHonworkshop,UniversityofCaliforniaSantaCruz,CA.April26-28.

Gentry,Jeff.2015.twiTeR:R-basedTwiTerclient.URLhTp://lists.hexdump.org/lis:nfo.cgi/twiTer-users-hexdump.org

Kratzer,Angelika.2009.MakingaPronoun:FakeIndexicalsasWindowsintotheProper:esofPronouns.LinguisHcInquiry40(2),187-237.

RCoreTeam.(2017).R:Alanguageandenvironmentforsta:s:calcompu:ng.RFounda:onforSta:s:calCompu:ng,Vienna,Austria.URLhTps://www.R-project.org/

Raymond,ChaseWesley.2016.Linguis:creferenceinthenego:a:onofiden:tyandac:on:Revisi:ngtheT/Vdis:nc:on.Language92:636–670.

erselfandeself

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Similarly,erselfiso_enjustadialectaltrunca:onofherself

Asapartofalargersetofiden:tyconstruc:onfeatures,thisshowsupo_enindogtwiTer

EselfappearsinNigerianPidginEnglish,alongwiththirdpersonpronoune

houself

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HarryPoTerslashfic:on/roleplay.

merself

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Underwateriden:ty