Singularthey: An Empirical Study of Generic Pronoun Use

Abstract

The present study addresses an issue of the English language that has been discussed at length for the past several decades: Which pronoun should one use when referring to a singular, genderless antecedent (e.g., student)? Though much has been written on the subject of the use of the generic masculine, singular they, and he or she constructions in published works, and other studies have looked at how English speakers process and interpret the aforementioned pronouns in writing, few studies have researched the use of these pronouns in free response to questions including a singular, genderless referent. The present study contributes to the last of these three methodologies by exploring which pronouns native English speakers use when writing about a genderless person (i.e., “the ideal student”). The results of this study indicate that a large majority of participants (79%) include a gender-inclusive approach (he or she type constructions or singular they) when referring to a singular, genderless antecedent; 68% use singular they. However, participants note that he or she type variations do not include some who may not identify within the gender binary.

The male bias of a generically-intended personal pronoun in language processing

“…However, the pioneering studies on English masculine generic pronouns seldomly used online tasks. Newer studies do not fill this gap either, since the research focus now is on singular they, as its use has vastly increased while generic he has lost in popularity (Baranowski 2002;Earp 2012;LaScotte 2016). One exception are the two experiments by Noll et al (2018), which suggest that the use of generic he leads to a male bias nowadays; in an experiment conducted 15 years earlier, however, they found no evidence of a male bias.…”

“…Remarkably, Lakoff (1973), who was one of the early critics of a gender bias in the English language, stated that trying to change the pronoun usage of English speakers and replacing generic he would be futile. Time has proven that her prediction was wrong; the frequency in use of generic he has since decreased, while usage of the gender-neutral alternative singular they has increased (Baranowski 2002;Earp 2012;LaScotte 2016). More recent studies on generic pronouns have thus focused on singular they, but by comparing singular they to its predecessor of sort he, some conclusions regarding the processing of masculine generic pronouns can still be drawn.…”

Reducing a Male Bias in Language? Establishing the Efficiency of Three Different Gender-Fair Language Strategies

“…Yet another neutralization strategy is the English use of singular they as a gender-neutral generic third-person singular pronoun, mainly used when the gender of someone is unknown (Bodine 1975;Harris et al 2017;LaScotte 2016;Madson and Hessling 1999;Richards et al 2016). Singular they, however, can also be used to transcend the binary gender of he/she and hereby refer to an individual with a non-binary gender identity (McGlashan and Fitzpatrick 2018;Zimmer and Carson 2012).…”

Pronouns and Advocacy in Medicine

“…1 The use of they to refer to a single person has been linguistically common prior to this addition. 2,3 I personally had already been using they/them pronouns for months before this announcement, but the addition of a new definition of they to the dictionary was still affirming. As a third-year medical student in a revolving door of clerkships-involving another revolving door of residents and attending physicians-my pronoun use comes up almost daily.…”