Singular they: An Empirical Study of Generic Pronoun Use

The present study addresses an issue of the English language that has been discussed at length for the past several decades: Which pronoun 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, sin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American speech 2016-02, Vol.91 (1), p.62-80
Main Author: LaScotte, Darren K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
American Studies
English language
Etymology
Gender
Grammar
Grammatical gender
Grammatical number
Language usage
Linguistics
Pronouns
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Summary:The present study addresses an issue of the English language that has been discussed at length for the past several decades: Which pronoun 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 , and 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 ( type constructions or singular ) when referring to a singular, genderless antecedent; 68% use singular . However, participants note that type variations do not include some who may not identify within the gender binary.
ISSN:0003-1283
1527-2133
DOI:10.1215/00031283-3509469