Nouns, Determiners and Pronouns

Update: Inclusion of "they" as singular pronoun. In Module 2, third person singular subject pronouns are identified as “he, she, and it” and object pronouns as “him, her, and it.” However, now “they”, “them”, and “themselves” are considered grammatically acceptable as third person singular pronouns including for persons who choose to use that pronoun and whose gender identity is nonbinary. The seventh edition of the APA style manual, that was published in 2020, includes the third person singular “they” “because it is inclusive of all people and helps writers avoid making assumptions about gender.” The most recent edition of the Merriam-Webster dictionary includes the definition of “they” as “used to refer to a single person whose gender identity is nonbinary” and the Oxford English dictionary has a similar inclusive definition. For purposes of this course and the assessment going forward, “they”, “them” and “themselves” are all accepted as singular third person pronouns. The conjugation of the verb following the singular “they” continues to be in the plural form, such as “they are” not “they is”. See, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dicti... and https://apastyle.apa.org/style-gramma... This module series will discuss the fundamentals of Standard American English (SAE) morphosyntax (also known as Mainstream American English or General American English), highlight some morphosyntactic features of American English dialects and language transfer in English Language Learners (ELLS), and identify important considerations in assessing the language of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Module 2 in this series outlines some morphosyntactic features of American English dialects relating to the use of nouns, determiners and pronouns.