The use of gendered pronouns with animal referents in english

Abstract Speakers and writers of English can choose whether to mark a high level of sentience in a nonhuman animal by selecting the human and gendered terms (he, she, who) rather than the inanimate and ungendered terms (it, which). This paper reports an investigation of the Anglo-American literature to explore the extent to which speakers and writers use gendered pronouns ‘he’ and ‘she’ where the antecedent is a nonhuman animal. We also attempt to identify pragmatic factors and metaphoric associations that trigger personalizing of animals in literature and everyday conversations.Teterina, Marina. The use of gendered pronouns with animal referents in english / M. Teterina // Limbaj şi context = Speech and Context : Rev. de lingvistică, semiotică şi şt. literară. – 2012. – Nr 2. – P. 50-59. – ISSN 1857-4149