With his trademark humor and flair, bestselling linguist John McWhorter busts the myths and shares the history of the most controversial language topic of our times: pronouns
The nature of language is to shift and evolve—but every so often, a new usage creates a whole lot of consternation. These days, pronouns are throwing curveballs, and it matters, because pronoun habits die hard. If you need a refresher from eighth-grade English: Pronouns are short, used endlessly, and serve to point and direct, to orient us as to what is meant about who. Him, not her. Me, not you. Pronouns get a heavy workout, and as such, they become part of our hardwiring. To mess with our pronouns is to mess with us.
But many of today’s hot-button controversies are nonsense. The singular they has been with us since the 1400s and appears in Shakespeare’s works. In fact, many of the supposedly iron-clad rules of grammar are up for debate (Billy and me went to the store is perfectly logical!), and with tasty trivia, unexpected twists, and the weird quirks of early and contemporary English, John McWhorter guides readers on a journey of how our whole collection of these little words emerged and has changed over time.
"John McWhorter starts with 'I' and 'me' and ends up circling the world, with stops along the way for Shakespeare, Sesame Street, Broadway musicals, Elmer Fudd, and a hundred other unexpected and fascinating digressions. The only thing better than reading Pronoun Trouble would be sitting next to McWhorter at a dinner party."—Malcolm Gladwell
“Yes, Pronoun Trouble sheds light on using ‘they’ for a single person, ‘guys’ for girls and women, and the self-contradictory but ubiquitous ‘yeah no.’ But more than that, you come away knowing how the language you love—or take for granted—got that way.”—Deborah Tannen, author of You Just Don't Understand
"Who would have thought a decade ago that the words inciting shame and outrage would not be slurs identified by a first consonant, or a sexual term with four letters, but the humble pronoun? No one could make better sense of this part of speech than our national treasure, John McWhorter. Pronoun Trouble explains its subject with clarity, insight, and good judgment."—Steven Pinker (he/him/his), author of The Language Instinct
"John McWhorter takes a small-seeming subject, the pronoun, and with his unique mix of charm, linguistic erudition, and common sense, explains it all to us. Readers may be so taken with his delicate analysis of examples that they miss his larger point: a passionate pluralism of concepts and voices is as essential to a sane view of the way we speak as it is to a sane view of the way we live."—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker
John H. McWhorter teaches linguistics, American Studies, and music history at Columbia University. He is a contributing editor at the Atlantic and host of Slate's Lexicon Valley podcast. McWhorter is the author of twenty books, including The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language, Losing the Race: Self Sabotage in Black America, and Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English.View titles by John McWhorter
With his trademark humor and flair, bestselling linguist John McWhorter busts the myths and shares the history of the most controversial language topic of our times: pronouns
The nature of language is to shift and evolve—but every so often, a new usage creates a whole lot of consternation. These days, pronouns are throwing curveballs, and it matters, because pronoun habits die hard. If you need a refresher from eighth-grade English: Pronouns are short, used endlessly, and serve to point and direct, to orient us as to what is meant about who. Him, not her. Me, not you. Pronouns get a heavy workout, and as such, they become part of our hardwiring. To mess with our pronouns is to mess with us.
But many of today’s hot-button controversies are nonsense. The singular they has been with us since the 1400s and appears in Shakespeare’s works. In fact, many of the supposedly iron-clad rules of grammar are up for debate (Billy and me went to the store is perfectly logical!), and with tasty trivia, unexpected twists, and the weird quirks of early and contemporary English, John McWhorter guides readers on a journey of how our whole collection of these little words emerged and has changed over time.
Reviews
"John McWhorter starts with 'I' and 'me' and ends up circling the world, with stops along the way for Shakespeare, Sesame Street, Broadway musicals, Elmer Fudd, and a hundred other unexpected and fascinating digressions. The only thing better than reading Pronoun Trouble would be sitting next to McWhorter at a dinner party."—Malcolm Gladwell
“Yes, Pronoun Trouble sheds light on using ‘they’ for a single person, ‘guys’ for girls and women, and the self-contradictory but ubiquitous ‘yeah no.’ But more than that, you come away knowing how the language you love—or take for granted—got that way.”—Deborah Tannen, author of You Just Don't Understand
"Who would have thought a decade ago that the words inciting shame and outrage would not be slurs identified by a first consonant, or a sexual term with four letters, but the humble pronoun? No one could make better sense of this part of speech than our national treasure, John McWhorter. Pronoun Trouble explains its subject with clarity, insight, and good judgment."—Steven Pinker (he/him/his), author of The Language Instinct
"John McWhorter takes a small-seeming subject, the pronoun, and with his unique mix of charm, linguistic erudition, and common sense, explains it all to us. Readers may be so taken with his delicate analysis of examples that they miss his larger point: a passionate pluralism of concepts and voices is as essential to a sane view of the way we speak as it is to a sane view of the way we live."—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker
John H. McWhorter teaches linguistics, American Studies, and music history at Columbia University. He is a contributing editor at the Atlantic and host of Slate's Lexicon Valley podcast. McWhorter is the author of twenty books, including The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language, Losing the Race: Self Sabotage in Black America, and Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English.View titles by John McWhorter
