Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Singular they has a long history in English. Generic uses of singular they refer to nonspecific individuals, whereas referential uses refer to specific persons. This study examined acceptability and processing of singular they and the role of individual differences. Fifty-one native English speakers read sentences containing gendered pronouns or singular they in generic and definite contexts while their eye movements were recorded. Participants also completed measures of gender role attitudes, prescriptive grammar attitudes, attitudes toward singular they, and the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Singular they was rated as highly acceptable in both contexts, with generic uses preferred over gendered pronouns. Eye-tracking data revealed no overall processing cost for singular they. These findings indicate that singular they is largely standardized in Canadian English, and any processing cost is brief and influenced by evaluative monitoring rather than comprehension difficulty.