The evolution of "she" : a case study : reviews and an evaluation of the evolutionary approach to language change

Abstract

This case study is in part a critical evaluation of (and departure from) contemporary approaches to the subject of linguistic evolution that are largely modelled on biological analogues and theory, in part a problematisation of the very notion of explanation in this context, and in part a review of various historical attempts at offering explanations, or alternatives to such, for the 'perennial puzzle' of the English third person feminine personal pronoun - 'she' - with or without reference to evolutionary hypotheses.