Psy394v
The Social Psychology of Language Use
Oct 15, 2001
Some Psychological Perspectives on Pronouns
Kashima, E. S., & Kashima, Y. (1998). Culture and language: The case of cultural dimensions
and personal pronoun use. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 29, 461 – 486.
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Analyzed cultural differences between countries with languages that have a ‘pronoun drop’ option
(such as Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Mandarin, Indonesian, Korean, Russian, etc .) and that don’t
have a ‘pronoun drop’ option (e.g. English, German, French, Greek, Finnish, etc. ).
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Pronoun drop option refers to the possibility in spoken language to express first and second person
perspective without the explicit use of “I” or “you”
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The idea is that an explicit use of “I” and “you” highlights a figure against the speech context that
constitutes the ground; the absence reduces the prominence of the speaker; consequently, the
authors hypothesize that countries with a pronoun drop language tend to be more collectivistic as
compared to countries with languages with obligatory pronoun use. This should be the case
because implicitly in a conversation less ‘overt’ distinctions are made between speakers, less
emphasis is put on the different perspectives.
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Across 71 countries and 39 languages indicators of individualism-collectivism (Hofstede, 1980)
correlated with the type of language in the direction that pronoun drop countries were less
individualistic
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Other results: Pronoun drop goes with more power distance, more paternalism, more conservatism,
more moral discipline and less achievement orientation.
Sillars, A., Wesley, S., McIntosh, A., Pomegranate, M. (1997). Relational characteristics of
language: Elaboration and differentiation in marital conversation. Western Journal of
Communication, 61, 403 – 422.
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Adopt the theoretical notion that personal references in marital conversations can reflect the degree
of differentiation (integration) of identities with “we” pronouns showing greater inclusion/
integration and “I/you” pronouns establishing greater separation of self and other.
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Transcripts of 120 married couples discussing marital issues such as “disagreement about money”,
“lack of communication”, or “disagreement about household responsibilities” were analyzed in
terms of pronoun use (word count of “I”, “I’m” or “my” or “we”, “ours” or “each other”);
questionnaires were used to classify couples according to interdependence/autonomy and marital
ideology (traditional); ultimately classification into four types: traditional, independent, separate
and mixed.
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Results show that “I” and “you” words correlate negatively with satisfaction, “we”-words
positively with age and “you” words negatively with educational level. Also, traditional/
interdependent couples used less “I” and “you” words as compared to autonomous couples.
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Other results: more satisfied couples made more cross-references (repetition of what the other
person said) and avoided making statements about the other (interpretation). Also, more educated
couples had longer utterances, more qualifiers (sort of, maybe, probably, seems to me) and more
meta-talk.
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Psy394v
The Social Psychology of Language Use
Oct 15, 2001
Cegala, D. J. (1989). A study of selected linguistic components of involvement in interaction.
Western Journal of Speech Communication, 53, 311 – 326.
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Sought out to identify linguistic correlates of engagement / detachment in a communication; the
authors primarily looked at four linguistic concepts: Verbal immediacy, uncertainty, pronoun use
(first singular – plural; ratio second/first singular and first plural/first singular) and article use (a, an
vs. the – the implies more shared knowledge)
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120 (60 males, 60 female) participants who did not know each other are asked to engage in a brief
conversation (6 min; same sex dyads) talking about what ever they want. Participants were preselected on the basis of extremity of IIS scores (Interaction Involvement Scale (trait characteristic;
Cegala, 1981, 1982). Groups with high-high, low-low and high-low involvement dyads
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Results show that high involvement in interaction is characterized by high certainty expression,
highly immediate language and more relational pronouns (smaller first person ratio: H-H dyads
used more than H-L and H-L dyads)
Schütz, A., & Baumeister R. (1999). The language of defense: Linguistic patterns in narratives of
transgression. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 18, 269 – 286.
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investigated how defensive motivation affects pattern of language use; narratives of personal
transgressions (about hurting someone) were compared against narratives of making someone
happy.
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Compared to happy stories, transgression narratives were more likely to describe actions occurring
without deliberate intention (“it happened” vs. “I decided to”).
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Also: transgression narratives had shorter sentences, a longer introduction (to carefully explain the
background?) and focused more on the emotions and thoughts of the narrator whereas ‘making
someone happy’-narratives focused more on the emotions and thoughts of the target; transgression
narratives had fewer specific details.
Perdue, Charles W; Dovidio, John F; Gurtman, Michael B; Tyler, Richard B. Us and them:
Social categorization and the process of intergroup bias. Journal of Personality & Social
Psychology, 59, 475-486.
Participants responded more quickly to positive words such as "sunshine" when they followed the ingroup pronoun "we" than they had if the out-group pronoun "they" was used. The authors suggest that
the actual words that designate in-groups/out-groups automatically introduce evaluative intergroup
biases that favor the in-group. Therefore, if we have a difficult time describing other groups by not
using the words "we" or "they" we should be aware of the linguistic influences that may help
contribute to misperception between groups.
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Psy394v
The Social Psychology of Language Use
Oct 15, 2001
WHAT IS A PRONOUN, ANYWAY?
First you need to know about anaphor. An anaphor is a linguistic unit that refers to objects that have
already been introduced into a discourse. So anaphors refer to something previously mentioned;
cataphors refer to something that will be mentioned later. Both anaphors and cataphors are collected
under the term endophora. Endophora share their boundedness to a text, often of only sentence length.
This contrasts with exophora, AKA deictic units, which refer to an extra-linguistic situation. In other
words,
1. Endophora – referents occur within the text
a. Anaphor – referent is something previously mentioned. Includes pronouns
b. Cataphor – referent is something not yet mentioned, but will be mentioned later.
2. Exophora (deictic units) – referents occur outside the text
Linguists tend to treat pronouns as literally standing in place of nouns, and are apparently uninterested
in their role as indexical indicators of persons.
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Grammarians classify pronouns into several types, including the personal pronoun, the demonstrative
pronoun, the interrogative pronoun, the indefinite pronoun, the relative pronoun, the reflexive pronoun,
and the intensive pronoun.
Personal Pronouns
A personal pronoun refers to a specific person or thing and changes its form to indicate person,
number, gender, and case.

Subjective Personal Pronouns: A subjective personal pronoun indicates that the pronoun is
acting as the subject of the sentence. The subjective personal pronouns are “I,” “you,”
“she,” “he,” “it,” “we,” “you,” “they.”

Objective Personal Pronouns: An objective personal pronoun indicates that the pronoun is
acting as an object of a verb, compound verb, preposition, or infinitive phrase. The
objective personal pronouns are: “me,” “you,” “her,” “him,” “it,” “us,” “you,” and “them.”

Possessive Personal Pronouns: A possessive pronoun indicates that the pronoun is acting as
a marker of possession and defines who owns a particular object or person. The possessive
personal pronouns are “mine,” “yours,” “hers,” “his,” “its,” “ours,” and “theirs.” Note that
possessive personal pronouns are very similar to possessive adjectives like “my,” “her,” and
“their.”
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The Social Psychology of Language Use
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A Chart of Pronoun Cases
Subjective
Objective
Possessive
I
Me
My, Mine
You
You
Your, Yours
He
Him
His
She
Her
Her, Hers
It
It
Its
We
Us
Our, Ours
They
Them
Their, Theirs
Demonstrative Pronouns
A demonstrative pronoun points to and identifies a noun or a pronoun. “This” and “these” refer to
things that are nearby either in space or in time, while “that” and “those” refer to things that are farther
away in space or time.
The demonstrative pronouns are “this,” “that,” “these,” and “those.” “This” and “that” are used to refer
to singular nouns or noun phrases and “these” and “those” are used to refer to plural nouns and noun
phrases. Note that the demonstrative pronouns are identical to demonstrative adjectives, though,
obviously, you use them differently. It is also important to note that “that” can also be used as a
relative pronoun.
Interrogative Pronouns
An interrogative pronoun is used to ask questions. The interrogative pronouns are “who,” “whom,”
“which,” “what” and the compounds formed with the suffix “ever” (“whoever,” “whomever,”
“whichever,” and “whatever”). Note that either “which” or “what” can also be used as an interrogative
adjective, and that “who,” “whom,” or “which” can also be used as a relative pronoun.
You will find “who,” “whom,” and occasionally “which” used to refer to people, and “which” and
“what” used to refer to things and to animals.
“Who” acts as the subject of a verb, while “whom” acts as the object of a verb, preposition, or a verbal.
Relative Pronouns
You can use a relative pronoun is used to link one phrase or clause to another phrase or clause. The
relative pronouns are “who,” “whom,” “that,” and “which.” The compounds “whoever,” “whomever,”
and “whichever” are also relative pronouns.
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The Social Psychology of Language Use
Oct 15, 2001
You can use the relative pronouns “who” and “whoever” to refer to the subject of a clause or sentence,
and “whom” and “whomever” to refer to the objects of a verb, a verbal or a preposition.
Indefinite Pronouns
An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun referring to an identifiable but not specified person or thing. An
indefinite pronoun conveys the idea of all, any, none, or some.
The most common indefinite pronouns are “all,” “another,” “any,” “anybody,” “anyone,” “anything,”
“each,” “everybody,” “everyone,” “everything,” “few,” “many,” “nobody,” “none,” “one,” “several,”
“some,” “somebody,” and “someone.” Note that some indefinite pronouns can also be used as
indefinite adjectives.
Reflexive Pronouns
You can use a reflexive pronoun to refer back to the subject of the clause or sentence.
The reflexive pronouns are “myself,” “yourself,” “herself,” “himself,” “itself,” “ourselves,”
“yourselves,” and “themselves.” Note each of these can also act as an intensive pronoun.
Intensive Pronouns
An intensive pronoun is a pronoun used to emphasize its antecedent. Intensive pronouns are identical
in form to reflexive pronouns. (e.g., I myself believe that aliens should abduct my sister.)
AND HERE THEY ARE……
I

Disruptions of correct usage of “I” signal psychopathology. Schizophrenics display pronoun
disruption of this pronoun, in particular (according to some researchers, but not others). It is also
curiously used among individuals with dissociative identity disorder.

Personal pronouns are central to the human self system. In particular, it is the self-referential
function of the first person pronoun that allows each of us to assert possession of brains, breath,
beauty, buttons, brothers, etc. in a uniform way. To understand brains, breath, beauty, buttons, and
brothers, one needs to understand anatomy and physiology, aesthetics, tailoring, and psychology.
To understand how one asserts a claim on each of them one need only understand language. Thus
I'm not concerned with understanding the "brother" component of the phrase "my brother." I'm
only interested in the "my" component, which functions the same in that phrase as it does in similar
phrases such as "my body," "my brain," or, for that matter, "my button."

Language constitutes us as subjects or persons, the sort of beings who can communicate. The I or
Ego is the being who can say "I" or "Ego." But "I" is inherently a contrastive term, linked by
contrast with a "not-I," an "other"--in communication, a "you." I become a person or subject by
assuming the first-person pronoun position in the language I use. I assume personhood by saying
"I." To be a person is to be able to use the first-person pronoun "I." But again, "I" is an implicitly
contrastive term. It implies a "you"--a "you" who can also be an "I." A subject who says "I"
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The Social Psychology of Language Use
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implicitly addresses a "you." To function as a subject (a person) is to function in an inter-subjective
context. To assume the first-person position in language is to assume a position defined by
contrast with the second-person position. This contrast is, moreover, of a particular kind: it is the
contrast of two polar terms that are not opposed to one another but have a "dialectical" relation to
one another--a relation of reciprocity, mutuality. To be a person is to be sometimes in the firstperson ("I") position, and sometimes in the second-person ("you") position.
YOU

Mead (1934) and social constructionists after her agree that the grammar of the I-you discourse is a
basic structural component of human thought.

“You” is the pronoun that expresses social relations, particularly in other languages than English.
There are lots of theoretical explanations for the loss of the social relations aspect of ‘you’ in
English. Most of the ones I read have their basis in religious practices. (e.g., Quakers and
Mennonites refused to use two versions of ‘you’ because they rejected social hierarchy.)

These issues offered a brief revival of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: which came first? A social
structure that required two versions of this pronoun, or two version of this pronoun created the
social structure?
WE

“We” can be both inclusive (e.g., “Let’s go to the dance, shall we?”) and exclusive (e.g., “We’ve
enjoyed meeting you.”)

“We” serves a directive function, designed to get others to perform an action that is in the speaker’s
own interest. (e.g., “We don’t want to make a fuss at bedtime, do we?”)

“We” is used to illustrate solidarity. This is frequently done in product marketing as advertisers try
to bring about a feeling of solidarity between customer and product or brand name. The customer is
intended to be part of the referential sphere of “we.”
YOURS and MINE

There is some developmental evidence that personal pronouns may have developed later out of
possessive ones.

Other languages have a variety of possessive pronouns that relate to (1) the nature of the possessor,
(2) the nature of the possessed, and (3) the nature of the relationship between the two. English has
only the minimal number of distinctions.
HE, SHE, or IT

Everything I read about this category of pronouns had to do with the gender of nouns, and the use
of masculine pronouns as markers for all people.
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