LING 007. FYS: Pronouns

What do people mean when they say someone “has pronouns”? What grammatical constraints affect pronouns, and are they universal? How do pronouns change over time? Why do people take a longer time to learn new pronouns compared to new names or nouns? How are pronouns processed in the brain? All languages have pronouns, but their linguistic properties vary between languages, change over time, and vary within languages. In this class, we will explore the meaning, formation, history, and use of pronouns across languages by engaging with linguistic research and language data. This class is suitable for students with no previous study in linguistics; we will cover pronouns from the perspective of multiple subdisciplines, including syntax, semantics, morphology, psycholinguistics, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics.
Social sciences.
1 credit.
Eligible for GSST.
Fall 2025. Conrod.
Catalog chapter: Linguistics
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/linguistics

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