Psychology, prescriptive grammar, and the pronoun problem.

Abstract

People want to know the most accept­ able words aTuI rules jar using English, and the goal oj prescriptive grammar is to determine and to teach those rules. The present article argues that psychology can help to develop principles and procedures for pre­ scriptive grammar. As a first step in that direction, an e:rperimental technique is reported jar evaluating the prescription oj to mean he or she. Subjects who read textbook paragraphs containing prescriptive referring to neutral antecedents, such as person, mis­ comprehended the antecedents as male 40% more ofFen tllaTl did subjects who read identical paragraphs with prescriptive replaced by a previously unen­ countered neologism. Programmatic implications oj these results jor the rejormation of prescriptive gram­ mar are discussed. Psychologists have long recognized the need for prescriptions within their own small province of English. The Publication Jl11nual of the American Psychological Association is a miniature prescrip­ tive grammar for psychological literature, a small subdivision of the more comprehensive prescrip­ tive grammar needed for the language as a whole. But psychologists have viewed larger presC:'iptive issues as the exclusive concern of linguists and have largely ignored the prescriptive grammar of English as a fruitful or relevant dorr.ain for psycho­

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