Word: pronounsed
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Ashbery's meanderers are lost in, or overwhelmed by, crowds--of people, of data, of events, of promises. His speakers suffer from information overload, which leads to an amiable, brooding loneliness, an inability to stay focused on anything. One poem begins, "Tell me more...Actually we're overextended" ("Of Dreams...
Actually, complex terms like "hyper-correction"and "leveled pronouns" might confuse ordinaryreaders, but Knowles used them to effectivelybuild a thesis about everyday speech.
"I just tell everyone it's about pronouns, butit's a little more complicated than that," thelinguistics concentrator says.
"Unlike languages like German or Russian,"Knowles says, "English pronouns are largelygender-neutral, which makes room for `leveledpronouns' like `you,'" meaning that their formdoes not change when used differently in asentence.
Other pronouns such as "him" or "her" mustchange form according to their place in asentence. But Knowles found that people more oftenspeak in a manner that "sounds good to them" thanfollowing grammatical rules about leveledpronouns.