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This study considers the use of they and he for generic reference in post-2000 written British English. The analysis is framed by a consideration of language-internal factors, such as syntactic agreement, and language-external factors, which include traditional grammatical prescriptivism and the language reforms resulting from second-wave feminism.

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Introduction 1. Exploring Epicene Pronouns in History 2. Epicenes in the Twenty-First Century 3. Epicenes and Social Movements 4. Prescriptions, Standards, and Epicenes 5. Accounting for Epicene Choice Conclusion Glossary

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"Laura Louise Paterson´s book entitled British Pronoun Use, Prescription, and Processing gives a very compelling, lucid and in-depth analysis of the term epicene pronoun, which is defined as a pronoun that does not convey gender or sex information, and is coindexed with a singular noun phrase referring to an animate being." - Masculinities Journal

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Laura Louise Paterson is a Teaching Fellow in English Language at The University of Leeds, UK. Her previous works include a diachronic study of generic he and singular they and an analysis of the English Language element of the UK National Curriculum. Her forthcoming publications focus on children´s pronouns and online sociolinguistic networks.

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