%0 Journal Article
%T Quand un pluriel cache un singulier : le cas de they
%A Jean ALBRESPIT
%J E-rea : Revue ¨¦lectronique d¡¯¨¦tudes sur le Monde Anglophone
%D 2012
%I 
%R 10.4000/erea.2557
%X Cet article examine les reprises en they d¡¯un ant¨¦c¨¦dent ¨¤ morphologie de singulier (de type : After a doctor graduates from medical school, they must take a licensing exam). Son but est de rendre compte des facteurs qui permettent de passer outre les contraintes syntaxiques d¡¯accord en nombre. They reprend un ant¨¦c¨¦dent ¨¤ valeur g¨¦n¨¦rique et le plus souvent ¨¦pic¨¨ne. L¡¯anglais ne disposant pas de pronom ¨¦pic¨¨ne, le choix s¡¯est port¨¦ vers un pronom qui a l¡¯avantage d¡¯inclure masculin et f¨¦minin mais l¡¯inconv¨¦nient de d¨¦placer la r¨¦f¨¦rence vers le g¨¦n¨¦rique. Le choix de ce pronom est li¨¦ non seulement ¨¤ un fonctionnement linguistique mais ¨¤ des consid¨¦rations sociologiques et stylistiques. Des strat¨¦gies pour ¨¦viter l¡¯emploi de they existent ; mais elles sont peu satisfaisantes, ou bien elles provoquent un changement dans la construction de la r¨¦f¨¦rence. This paper examines the status of they-anaphora and the construction of anaphoric reference when the antecedent has the morphology of a singular noun (type: After a doctor graduates from medical school, they must take a licensing exam). Its aim is to account for the parameters which make it possible to transgress the syntactic constraints of number agreement. They anaphorises an antecedent with a generic ¨C and most of the time an epicene ¨C value. As English does not have an epicene pronoun, the pronoun selected has the advantage of including both genders but the disadvantage of transferring referential values towards genericity. The choice of this pronoun is not only dependent on a linguistic pattern but also on sociological and stylistic criteria. There are strategies to avoid the use of they ¨C but they are unsatisfactory or else they modify the construction of reference.
%K anaphora
%K pronoun
%K agreement
%K antecedent
%K epicene
%K co-reference
%K generic
%K gender
%K genre
%K anaphore
%K pronom
%K accord
%K ant¨¦c¨¦dent
%K ¨¦pic¨¨ne
%K co-r¨¦f¨¦rence
%K g¨¦n¨¦rique
%U http://erea.revues.org/2557