THE ALTERNATIVES TO THE GENERIC MASCULINE AND THEIR USE IN SPAIN’S SPANISH

Abstract

Sometimes the use of the generic masculine (when referring to human beings) is ambiguous. This ambiguity —which arises from its dual value (specific and extensive)— has derived not only from the displacement of one value to another in certain contexts, but also from the improper extrapolation of the use of the specific masculine for extensive contexts. This has led to the proposal of new alternatives to such inefficient uses. This paper underlines that such alternatives are grammatically correct and do not violate the principle of linguistic economy; furthermore, despite the criticism regarding these uses, they frequently coexist with the generic masculine, which raises the possibility that some of them are being progressively introduced into the conversational register. Such a possibility would become even more plausible if those uses, which are already common in the administrative language, become consolidated in education and journalism.