Online discussions about rules for third-person pronoun use in Finnish

Abstract

The article examines online discussions regarding the use of the personal pronoun hän 'he, she' for animals and the demonstrative pronoun se 'it' for people. In Standard Finnish, the norm regulating the third-person pronouns used for animal referents is stricter than in many other languages. In English and Swedish, for instance, a personal pronoun is allowed and even recommended in some contexts. Even though it is against the norms of Standard Finnish, the personal pronoun hän 'he, she' may refer to pets in colloquial speech, children's books and playful style. The demonstrative pronoun se 'it', in turn, refers to all kinds of referents, including people, in informal spoken language. The approach in this article is folk linguistic and the methods used are those of discourse analysis and content analysis. It is not surprising that participants in online discussions focus on the standard norm and insist upon simple, unambiguous rules. However, a more common discourse in the data is to argue as to whether the choice of pronoun is linked to a demonstration of respect for animals. The perspectives regarding the two norms governing pronoun use intertwine in several interesting ways, and breaking these norms can be justified by situational variation and the right to use language freely. Many participants in online discussions think that the use of hän for animals may have increased due to the influence of other languages and changing attitudes towards animals.