Becauseeverybodyis singular rather than plural, correct usage requires a sin-
gular pronoun as well as a singular noun to provide the necessary agreement:
- Everybody grabbed his hat and went outside.
What we see in this sentence is the masculine pronounhisbeing used in a ge-
neric sense to include all people, regardless of gender. Beginning in the early
1970s, some educators and students expressed concern that the generic use of
hiswas a manifestation of sexist language. Within a few years, NCTE pub-
lished its guidelines on sexist language, and the major style guides and hand-
books asserted that the generic use ofhisshould be avoided at all costs.
Some educators advocated the arbitrary redesignation ofeveryoneandev-
erybodyfrom singular to plural. Others proposed replacing the generichiswith
the generichers,and still others suggested usinghis/herorhis or her.Today,
the first option is deemed unacceptable in most quarters; the second option is
embraced only by those with an ideological agenda. The third option (note that
his or heris always preferable tohis/her) is most widely accepted and has been
complemented with a fourth: Restructuring the sentence so as to eliminate the
indefinite pronoun. Consider these examples:
- Everybody grabbed his or her hat and went outside.
- They grabbed their hats and went outside.
- All the people grabbed their hats and went outside.
Reflexive Pronouns
When subjects perform actions on themselves, we need a special way to signify
the reflexive nature of the action. We do so through the use ofreflexive pro-
nouns.Consider the act of shaving, as in sentence 18, in which Macarena, the
subject, performs a reflexive action:
- *Macarena shaved Macarena.
This duplication is not allowed, but we cannot use a personal pronoun for the
object,Macarena.Doing so results in a different meaning, as in sentence 18a:
18a. Macarena shaved her.In sentence 18a, the pronounhercannot refer to Macarena but instead must
refer to someone else.
68 CHAPTER 3