I’m not a native speaker, but as far as I understood, for singular objects and animals “it” was used. Why use “they” for individual people then?
In: 1400
[removed]
As a non-native English speaker isn’t “it” still used as a pronoun for people? Here are some examples I can think of:
“You had a baby. Is **it** a boy or a girl?”
“Someone is on the other side of the door but I don’t know who **it** is.”
“I’ve examined the evidence to determine the real monster. **It** is Dr. Frankenstein.”
In some languages, it is a fairly standard pronoun.
In Finnish, the pronoun “it” is not uncommon.
However, in English we have been taught that “it” is for animals and inanimate objects, so to some it sounds rude, and “they” is someone’s preference, so to be respected.
“Where did John go?” “It went to the store.”
Doesn’t sounds right, makes John sound like an object. In english we would say “it give off some real Buffalo Bill vibes calling people it”.
“Where did John go?” “They went to the store.”
Clearly a person, clearly John, who else would it be in this context.
Now using He, or She would also work. No one really uses the same one every time, some people use He and She almost always and only “they” for groups, but lot’s of people use a combination for singular people without realizing. Even the word “We” can be used in place of “I”, and has been used that way for awhile.
“It” is not gender neutral as such.
In many languages, you have three gramatic genders: masculinum, femininum and neutrum. Latin did this, German has this. In those languages, you use the same gendered pronoun for both male persons and words that are masculinum. In German, dog (“Hund”) is masculinum and cat (“Katze”) is femininum. In effect, you can call any dog “he” and any cat “she” – even a bitch and a tomcat. Of course if you know the animal, you would probably use gender specific pronouns for it.
In Danish (my native language) masculinum and femininum have merged. We have two gramatic genders, common gender and neutrum. All kinds of human as well as most kinds of animals are common gender, because neutrum is mostly for inanimate or abstract words (ironically, both “human” and “animal” are neutrum, which is probably because of their abstractness).
All that means that using the equivalent of “it” would be weird and mostly offensive. You’re basically saying that whoever you’re talking about is more akin to an inanimate object than a human being.
Now, while English doesn’t have gramatical genders any more (Old English had three genders), it retains the pronoun structure. Which means that “it” is specifically used about non-persons. You could use it about ex-humans – “the corpse … it”. You could also use it about very small human beings, like “the infant” or “the foetus”. Maybe even “the toddler”. But even when you start talking about “the child”, saying “it” starts being weird. And try saying “the youth… it” or “the teenager… it” – that would be very inappropriate, because they have come into their own personhood.
Now, if it was the only option… but as others have pointed out, it’s not. There is a pronoun that is used about persons of undetermined, ambiguous or irrelevant gender – and that’s “they”. “‘Somebody has been here! They’ve eaten all my porrigde!” This use of “they” go way back, and is uncontrovertial. The controversy only appeared when some people decided they preferred to be referred to that way, instead of by he or she.
It’s perceived as more respectful.
Politeness in linguistics is an interesting phenomenon. Across different languages, you find that politeness is usually associated with distancing (e.g saying something like “the gentleman” instead of “you” which is a pattern used in many) as well as more effort on the speaker’s side (using longer, more tedious constructions and forms). Add to this that “it” in English is associated with lower animates and inanimate objects, and it all clicks together.
Because grammatically “they” has been a correct term for a singular person longer than the word “you” has. Since the 1300s.
And because nonbinary people are not objects or animals. They are people.
For objects, yes, it is ‘it’. ‘It’ shouldn’t really be used for animals. If they’re unclear people sometimes say ‘it’, but it should really be he or she also, as they’re also he or she. And when plural, we use ‘they’. Look at them sheep over there? Where are the sheep? They’re over there. It’s just the weird plural nature of ‘they’ in English versus how it can be plural and singular in other languages (or non-gendered entirely).
For ‘it’, you would be referring to an object. And calling a person an ‘it’ would obviously be offensive. But it should be ‘they’ for other animals also and ‘he’ or ‘she’ for singular animals. This is done most commonly when someone is familiar with the animal. Where’s my dog? She’s over there. So it shows a lack of familiarity (and respect) when using ‘it’ for an animal (including humans).
“They” has traditionally been used for unknown gender, whereas “it” is for an item that you know has no gender.
For example, “I heard that there was a strange teacher at the neighbouring school: they ride a unicycle to work”. “They” is used because the speaker doesn’t know what gender the teacher is, they just know that the person in question is a teacher. If they knew it was a woman, they would say “She rides a unicycle to work”.
On the other hand, “The table is broken. It has only two legs” uses “it” because a table in English has no gender. It doesn’t have unknown gender, it has no gender.
Since a person has an intrinsic gender, it is considered dehumanising to refer to them an an item with no gender, because in English that is reserved for non-human objects.
You’re from Spain right? Same reason y’all use el leísmo over there. Just like “le” sounds more like a person than “lo”, “they” sounds more like a person than “it”.
Latest Answers