"They" as a gender-unspecified singular pronoun: eye tracking reveals a processing cost.
The plural pronouns they and them are used to refer to individuals with unknown gender and when a random allocation of gender is undesirable. Despite this apparently felicitous usage, "singular they/them" should raise processing problems under the theory that pronouns seek gender- and number-matched antecedents. Using eye-tracking, we investigated whether there was any processing cost associated with using singular they/them. There was a clear cost of number incompatibility for they/them. Thus, although singular they/them is in current usage, it does not appear that they/them is immediately tolerant of a plural antecedent, though such may be rapidly accommodated. The data are consistent with the search account of pronoun resolution and preserve the semantics of they/them as denoting plurality.
Sanford
Anthony J
AJ
Department of Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK. tony@psy.gla.ac.uk
Filik
Ruth
R
D003071:Cognition; D005133:Eye Movements; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D012737:Sex Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014825:Vocabulary