Nota: A tradução desta entrada está atualmente em revisão de qualidade, portanto parte do conteúdo é exibida temporariamente apenas em inglês.
Este verbete ainda não foi traduzido para o seu idioma, portanto o original é exibido abaixo.
he
This pronoun is primarily used to identify a specific male subject. In contemporary English, its use is strictly gender-specific when referring to known individuals. It functions as the subject of a sentence, contrasting with the object form "him" and the possessive form "his".
Historically, "he" served as a generic or epicene pronoun to refer to any person regardless of gender. While this remains common in older legal texts or classical literature, modern usage has largely shifted toward gender-neutral alternatives like "they" or "he or she" to avoid gender bias and improve inclusivity.
Meanings
Examples
Cultural Context
For centuries, the English language operated under a grammatical convention known as the generic he. In this system, the pronoun he was not merely a reference to a male individual, but served as a universal placeholder for any human being whose gender was unknown or irrelevant. If a legal document stated that he shall be punished for a crime, it was understood that this applied to anyone, regardless of gender. This was not seen as an exclusion of women, but rather as a linguistic shorthand, a way to maintain grammatical consistency without the clunkiness of saying he or she every time.
However, as societal perspectives on gender equality shifted during the 19th and 20th centuries, the generic he became a point of intense linguistic and political contention. Critics argued that using he as the default human pronoun subtly reinforced the idea that the male experience was the standard or primary human experience, effectively rendering women invisible in the eyes of the law and literature. This sparked a massive shift in style guides and academic writing. For a time, the phrase he or she became the gold standard for inclusivity, though many found it repetitive and cumbersome in long texts.
This tension eventually paved the way for the resurgence of the singular they. While some traditionalists initially balked at the idea of using a plural pronoun for a single person, the singular they has deep roots in English, dating back to the 14th century. Today, we see a fascinating linguistic convergence where he is strictly reserved for males, while they has stepped in to fill the void left by the generic he. The journey of this one small word reflects a broader human story: our constant effort to align the tools of our communication with our evolving understanding of identity and equality.