Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T21:11:24.710Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - The Power of a Pronoun

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2022

By
Linda Flores Ohlson
Edited by
Natalia Knoblock
Natalia Knoblock
Affiliation:
Saginaw Valley State University, Michigan
Get access

Summary

Through the concept of performativity we can see how ‘the uttering of the sentence is, or is a part of, the doing of an action’. Language can influence cognitive processes and can highlight certain attributes or qualities of people. This chapter explores the role of pronoun choice as a dehumanizing discursive strategy. By using a pronoun that is normally related to non-human creatures in reference to a human being, the pronoun choice itself becomes the doing of the action of dehumanization. In languages where there are two sets of pronouns, one type is normally used to express personhood, and the other in reference to inanimate objects and to animals. When the inanimate pronoun it is used, the referent is not considered human. On the contrary, in previous research, I have shown that when the pronouns that express personhood are used in reference to humanoid creatures, they can take part in a humanization process that can have obvious consequences for the moral question of how to treat that creature. While the author’s previous research has concentrated on the literary and film application of the importance of pronoun, here conclusions from such research are revisited and ‘it-dehumanization’ examined in real-life discourse.

Keywords

pronounsdehumanizationhumanizationperformativity
Type
Chapter
Information
The Grammar of Hate
Morphosyntactic Features of Hateful, Aggressive, and Dehumanizing Discourse
 , pp. 161 - 176
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adkins, R. (2010). The ‘Monstrous Other’ Speaks: Postsubjectivity and the Queering of the Normal. Ann Arbor, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.Google Scholar
Anderson, L. and Lepore, E. (2013). Slurring words. NOUS 47(1): 25–48.Google Scholar
Austin, J. L. (1973). How to Do Things with Words. New York, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Boccato, G., Capozza, D., Falvo, R. and Durante, F. (2008). The missing link: Ingroup, outgroup and the human species. Social Cognition 26(2). DOI: 10.1521/soco.2008.26.2.224CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boon, K. (2011). The Zombie as Other: Mortality and the Monstrous in the Post-Nuclear Age. In Better off Dead, ed. Christie, D. and Lauro, S. J.. New York, Fordham University Press, pp. 51–60.Google Scholar
Brooker, C. (2011–). Black Mirror (Netflix series), www.imdb.com/title/tt2085059/.Google Scholar
Brooks, M. (2006). World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. New York, Broadway Paperbacks.Google Scholar
Carey, M. R. (2014). The Girl with All the Gifts. London, Orbit.Google Scholar
Carey, M. R. (2017). The Boy on the Bridge. London, Orbit.Google Scholar
Chavez, L. R. (2013). The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation. Stanford, Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, C. (1992). Pets, Pests, and Pronouns: Aspects of Current English Pronominal Usage in Reference to Non-Human Animates. In Language and Civilization: A Concerted Profusion of Essays and Studies in Honor of Otto Hietsch, I & II, ed. Kirschner, T., Gutch, D., Gilbert, J. and Blank, C.. Frankfurt, Peter Lang, pp. 634–644.Google Scholar
Cobas, J. A. Duany, J. and Feagin, J. R. (2009). How the United States Racializes Latinos: White Hegemony and Its Consequences. London, Paradigm Publishers.Google Scholar
Cohen, J. J. (2012). Undead: A zombie oriented ontology. Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 23(3): 397–412.Google Scholar
Engler, C. and Schaefer, K. (2014–2018). Z Nation, television series produced by The Asylum.Google Scholar
enTenTen, – Corpus of the English Web (n.d.). Sketch Engine. Retrieved from www.sketchengine.eu/ententen-english-corpus/Google Scholar
Flores Ohlson, L. (2017). The Magic of a Pronoun. In Språkens magi: Festskrift till professor Ingmar Söhrman, ed. Castro, A. and Granvik, A.. Gothenburg, Studia Interdisciplinaria, Linguistica et Litteraria (SILL), Göteborgs universitet, pp. 51–54.Google Scholar
Flores Ohlson, L. (2018). Fictional creature pronominalization: The use of he/she/it in reference to zombies, vampires, fairies, and trolls in Guillermo del Toro’s literary work. International Journal of Literary Linguistics 7(2): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flores Ohlson, L. (2020). The Zombie as a Pronoun: What Pronouns Are Used and Why? Broken Mirrors: Representations of Apocalypses and Dystopias in Popular Culture, ed. Trotta, J., Filipovic, Z. and Sadri., H. New York, Routledge, pp. 157–178.Google Scholar
Goff, P. A., Eberhardt, J. L., Williams, M. J. and Jackson, M. C. (2008). Not yet human: Implicit knowledge, historical dehumanization, and contemporary consequences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 94: 292–306. DOI:10.1037/0022-3514. 94.2.292.Google Scholar
Hill, J. H. (2009). English-Language Spanish in the United States as a Site of Symbolic Violence. In How the United States Racializes Latinos: White Hegemony and Its Consequences, ed. Cobas, J., Duany, J. and Feagin, J.. London, Paradigm Publishers, pp. 116–133.Google Scholar
Jeshion, R. (2013). Slurs and stereotypes. Analytic Philosophy 54(3): 314–329.Google Scholar
Joly, A. (1975). Toward a Theory of Gender in Modern English. In Studies in English Grammar, ed. Joly, A. and Fraser., T. Paris, Université de Lille III, pp. 227–284.Google Scholar
Kagwi-Ndungu, C. (2007). The Challenges in Prosecuting Print Media for Incitement to Genocide. International Development Research Centre. [Document(s) 34–37]. Retrieved from www.idrc.ca/fr/ev108292201-1-DO_TOPIC.html.Google Scholar
King, S. (2006). Cell (Audio edition). New York, Scribner.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. and Turner, M. (1989). More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lederer, J. (2013). ‘Anchor Baby’: A conceptual explanation for pejoration. Journal of Pragmatics 57: 248–266.Google Scholar
Leyens, J. P., Rodriguez‐Perez, A., Rodriguez‐Torre, R., Gaunt, R., Paladino, M. P., Vaes, J. and Demoulin, S. (2001). Psychological essentialism and the differential attribution of uniquely human emotions to ingroups and outgroups. European Journal of Social Psychology, 31(4): 395–411.Google Scholar
Marion, I. (2010). Warm Bodies. London, Vintage Originals.Google Scholar
O’Dea, C. J., Miller, S. S., Andres, E. B., Ray, M. H., Till, D. F. and Saucier, D. A. (2015). Out of bounds: Factors affecting the perceived offensiveness of racial slurs. Language Sciences 52: 155–164. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2014.09.005Google Scholar
Pierce, B. and Pierce, D. T. (2011). Deadheads. (movie). www.imdb.com/title/tt1273207/.Google Scholar
Pifer, L. (2011). Slacker Bites Back: Shaun of the Dead Finds New Life for Deadbeats. In Better off Dead: The Evolution of the Zombie as Post-Human, ed.Christie, D. and Lauro, S. J.. New York, Fordham University Press, pp. 163–174.Google Scholar
Santa Ana, O. (2002). Brown Tide Rising: Metaphors of Latinos in Contemporary American Public Discourse. Austin, University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Smith, D. L. and Panaitiu, I. (2016). Apeing the human essence: Simianization as dehumanization. In Simianization: Apes, Gender, Class, and Race, ed.Hund, W., Mills, C. and Sebastiani, S.. Zurich, LIT Verlag, pp. 77–104.Google Scholar
Stannard, D. E. (1993). American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. Oxford, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Steuter, E., and Wills, D. (2009). Discourses of dehumanization: Enemy construction and Canadian media complicity in the framing of the War on Terror. Global Media Journal: Canadian Edition 2(2).Google Scholar
Stoker, B. (1897). Dracula. London, Penguin Classics.Google Scholar
Toro, G. del, D. Kraus, (2015). Trollhunters. London, Hot Key Books.Google Scholar
Tufo, M. (2010). Zombie Fallout #1 (Audio edition). Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.Google Scholar
Wright, E. (2004). Shaun of the Dead (movie). www.imdb.com/title/tt0365748/Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×