REVISITING COMPOSITIONAL SEMANTICS. A CASE STUDY OF ENGLISH PRONOUNS
Teodora Popescu
1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia, Romania
This paper explores the evolving semantic and pragmatic landscape of English pronouns in light of recent sociocultural developments, particularly those regarding gender identity and LGBTQ+ inclusivity. Traditionally classified as closed-class pro-forms within the noun phrase, personal pronouns are now undergoing a functional and referential reconfiguration that reflects broader societal transformations. Drawing on systemic functional linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014) and informed by corpus examples from media and pop culture, this study investigates how non-binary and gender-neutral pronouns challenge the [±Binary] semantic feature and necessitate an expanded componential analysis. The paper argues for a redefinition of pronouns not merely as syntactic substitutes, but also as dynamic identity markers operating at the intersection of semantics, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics. Through an examination of pronoun use in contemporary discourse — including anaphora, deixis, and reference resolution — the article investigates how language adapts to reflect and shape emerging norms of gender expression, highlighting the urgent need for grammar models to integrate sociocultural realities into their descriptive frameworks.
Key words: Pronouns; Non-binary identity; Gender-inclusive language; Pragmatics; Sociolinguistics.
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How to cite this paper: Popescu, T. (2022). Revisiting compositional semantics. A case study of English pronouns. Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education – JoLIE, 15(1), 141–162. https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2022.15.1.9
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