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Evidence is accumulating that patterns of use for singular “they” are changing in English. The pronoun is becoming the preferred generic when the gender of the referent is unknown or backgrounded. This change reflects a shift in patterns of acceptability for uses of singular “they” which is in turn linked to the increased frequency of singular they. We predict that adaptation may be a cognitive mechanism underlying this change, and if so, we may see short-term adaptation within a lab session. In the present study, we use a between-subjects priming paradigm to test whether participants adapt to the frequency with which they encounter singular or plural senses of “they” in the local discourse. We find that selections of singular “they” are significantly more likely after participants have been exposed to unambiguously singular vs. plural uses of “they”. This finding implicates adaptation and suggests that adaptation may link changes in the frequency of linguistic forms to changes in their acceptability.
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This content will become publicly available on August 15, 2026
Kesan, J. & Arnold, J. E. (2025). Singular "they" exposure increases singular interpretations in ambiguous pronouns. Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society Meeting.
- Award ID(s):
- 1917840
- PAR ID:
- 10648467
- Publisher / Repository:
- Cognitive Science Society
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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