In Modern English, he is a singular, masculine, third-person pronoun.

Morphology

In Standard Modern English, he has four shapes representing five distinct word forms:[1]

History

Old English had a single third-person pronoun — from the Proto-Germanic demonstrative base *hi-, from PIE *ko- "this"[3] — which had a plural and three genders in the singular. The modern pronoun it developed out of the neuter singular, starting to appear without the h in the 12th century. Her developed out of the feminine singular dative and genitive forms, while the other feminine forms and the plural were replaced with other words. The older pronoun had the following forms:

Old English, third-person pronoun[4]: 117 
Singular Plural
Masculine Neuter Feminine
Nominative hē hit hēo hī(e)
Accusative hine hit hīe hī(e)
Dative him him hire him / heom
Genitive his his hire hira / heora

In the 12th century, it started to separate and appear without an h. Around the same time, one case was lost, and distinct pronouns started to develop. The -self forms developed in early Middle English, with hine self becoming himself.[5] By the 15th century, the Middle English forms of he had solidified into those we use today.[4]: 120 

Gender

He had three genders in Old English, but in Middle English, the neuter and feminine genders split off. Today, he is the only masculine pronoun in English. In the 18th century, it was suggested as a gender-neutral pronoun, and was thereafter often prescribed in manuals of style and school textbooks until around the 1960s.[6] In 2019 the Meriam-Webster dictionary added the singular they after seeing a spike in search interest.[7]

Syntax

Functions

He can appear as a subject, object, determiner or predicative complement.[8] The reflexive form also appears as an adjunct. He occasionally appears as a modifier in a noun phrase.

  • Subject: He's there; him being there; his being there; he paid for himself to be there.
  • Object: I saw him; I introduced her to him; He saw himself.
  • Predicative complement: The only person there was him.
  • Dependent determiner: I met his friend.
  • Independent determiner: This is his.
  • Adjunct: He did it himself.
  • Modifier: The he goat was missing.

Dependents

Pronouns rarely take dependents, but it is possible for he to have many of the same kind of dependents as other noun phrases.

Semantics

He's referents are generally limited to individual male persons, excluding the speaker and the addressee. He is always definite and usually specific.

Generic

The pronoun he can be used to refer to an unspecified person, as in If you see someone in trouble, help him. (See Gender above). This can seem very unnatural, even ungrammatical, as in these examples:

  • ?When somebody gives birth, it's good for him to have assistance.
  • ?If either your mother or father would like to discuss it, I'll talk to him.

The dominant epicene pronoun in modern written British English is 'they'.[9] Many style guides now reject the generic 'he'.[10]

Deities

When speaking of God, Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit, some Christians use the capitalised forms "He", "His" and "Him" in writing, and in some translations of the Bible.[lower-alpha 1]

Pronunciation

According to the OED, the following pronunciations are used:

Form Plain Unstressed Recording
he (UK) /ˈhiː/

(US) /hi/

 /(h)iː/

/(h)i/
him /hɪm/ /ɪm/
his /hɪz/ /ɪz/
himself /hɪmˈsɛlf/

See also

Look up he, him, his, or himself in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Notes

References

  1. ↑ Huddleston, Rodney; Pullum, Geoffrey K. (2002). The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge University Press.
  2. ↑ Lass, Roger, ed. (1999). The Cambridge history of the English Language: Volume III 1476–1776. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.)
  3. ↑ "it | Origin and meaning of it by Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  4. 1 2 Blake, Norman, ed. (1992). The Cambridge history of the English Language: Volume II 1066–1476. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  5. ↑ "himself, pron. and n." Oxford English Dictionary.
  6. ↑ O'Conner, Patricia; Kellerman, Stewart (21 July 2009). "On Language - "All-Purpose Pronoun"". New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on 30 May 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  7. ↑ Locker, Melissa (10 December 2019). "Merriam Webster Names 'They' As Its Word of the Year for 2019". Time. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  8. ↑ Huddleston, Rodney; Pullum, Geoffrey K. (2002). The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge University Press.
  9. ↑ Franziska, Moser; Magda, Formanowicz; Sabine, Sczesny (2 February 2016). "Can Gender-Fair Language Reduce Gender Stereotyping and Discrimination?". Frontiers in Psychology. 7 (25): 3. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00025. PMC 4735429. PMID 26869947.
  10. ↑ Paterson, Laura (25 July 2014). British Pronoun Use, Prescription, and Processing: Linguistic and Social Influences Affecting 'They' and 'He'. Vol. 7 (2014th ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 2. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00025. ISBN 978-1137332721. PMC 4735429. PMID 26869947. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)

Further reading

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