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Updated: Aug 5, 2026
04:43
Visualizing Visual Adaptation
Published on: April 24, 2017
People Adapt to Personal Singular They Through Exposure
Yining Ye1, Jennifer E Arnold1
1Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Open Mind : Discoveries in Cognitive Science
|July 31, 2026
Summary
Exposure to singular "they" pronoun usage increases its comprehension. This finding supports how familiarity with personal they/them pronouns can facilitate understanding of this evolving language norm.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Psycholinguistics
- Sociolinguistics
Background:
- The pronoun 'they' is traditionally plural but increasingly used as a singular pronoun for individuals using they/them pronouns.
- This shift necessitates that language users can identify singular referents for 'they' appropriately.
- Understanding the mechanisms behind this linguistic change is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of exposure in facilitating the comprehension of singular 'they' pronoun usage.
- To test the hypothesis that increased exposure enhances the ease of understanding 'personal they'.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted where participants listened to stories.
- Participants were exposed to narratives where 'they' referred to either a single character or two characters.
- Comprehension was assessed by analyzing interpretation choices.
Main Results:
- Participants showed a greater likelihood of selecting singular interpretations after being exposed to singular 'they' usage.
- This aligns with previous findings on adaptation affecting on-line processing.
- Evidence suggests that exposure influences how readily singular 'they' is understood.
Conclusions:
- Exposure plays a significant role in increasing the availability and comprehension of singular 'they' interpretations.
- Familiarity through repeated exposure appears to be a key mechanism driving the acceptance of this linguistic change.
- This research contributes to understanding language evolution and pronoun usage.
Keywords:
discourse processinglanguage adaptationpersonal theypronoun comprehensionreferential processingMore Related Videos
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