Gender-neutral pronoun usage: how and why singular they is used
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2020-07-06
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en
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This study focused on the usage of pronoun "they" in third-person singular context. The aim was to answer the question of how singular "they" is used by native speakers of English in different contexts, and what the reasoning behind pronoun choice might be. This thesis attempted to elaborate and improve on methods used in previous research by means of collecting qualitative and quantitative data on singular they usage. Participants took part in an online questionnaire containing a description task and gap-fill task. This gap-fill task contained sentences with genderless antecedents that were either specific or non-specific, and some of which were expected to evoke social gender associations. Additionally, this questionnaire contained an evaluation section used to study the motivation behind participants’ pronoun choices made in the earlier task. The results indicate that singular "they" is the ultimate pronoun choice when referring to genderless antecedents for most participants, regardless of age or gender, in both free-response and forced-choice situations. Especially in the case of non-specific antecedents, singular "they" is used extensively. The results also venture to suggest a link between ongoing social changes and an explicit awareness that leads participants to use singular "they" as a gender-neutral singular pronoun. This study signifies the pertinent position of gender-neutral language usage among native speakers of English.
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Faculteit der Letteren