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Does nonbinary they inherit the binary pronoun production system?

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The English pronoun system is undergoing a change in progress as singular they is used more frequently to refer to specific individuals, especially those who identify as nonbinary. How does this change affect the language production system? Research has shown that the production of he/she pronouns is supported by salient discourse status and inhibited in contexts where the pronoun would be ambiguous. In an analysis of naturally-occurring written texts, we test whether they production patterns with he/she production, controlling for discourse context. Results show that the overall rate of pronoun use is lower for references to nonbinary individuals than for references to binary individuals. This difference is not explained by the potential ambiguity of a referent in context. We speculate that relative unfamiliarity with nonbinary they and nonbinary gender may inhibit the activation of they during production, or may lead writers to avoid using a form that may not be familiar to their addressees.

California Digital Library (CDL)

Jennifer E Arnold Atziri Marquez Jiefang Li Genevieve Franck

Glossa Psycholinguistics

Title: Does nonbinary they inherit the binary pronoun production system?

Description:

The English pronoun system is undergoing a change in progress as singular they is used more frequently to refer to specific individuals, especially those who identify as nonbinary.

How does this change affect the language production system? Research has shown that the production of he/she pronouns is supported by salient discourse status and inhibited in contexts where the pronoun would be ambiguous.

In an analysis of naturally-occurring written texts, we test whether they production patterns with he/she production, controlling for discourse context.

Results show that the overall rate of pronoun use is lower for references to nonbinary individuals than for references to binary individuals.

This difference is not explained by the potential ambiguity of a referent in context.

We speculate that relative unfamiliarity with nonbinary they and nonbinary gender may inhibit the activation of they during production, or may lead writers to avoid using a form that may not be familiar to their addressees.

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