Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Davie 337B, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-3170, USA.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2021 Oct;28(5):1688-1697. doi: 10.3758/s13423-021-01905-0. Epub 2021 May 4.
The pronoun "they" can be either plural or singular, perhaps referring to an individual who identifies as nonbinary. How do listeners identify whether "they" has a singular or plural sense? We test the role of explicitly discussing pronouns (e.g., "Alex uses they/them pronouns"). In three experiments, participants read short stories, like "Alex went running with Liz. They fell down." Answers to "Who fell down" indicated whether participants interpreted they as Alex or Alex-and-Liz. We found more singular responses in discourse contexts that make Alex more available: when Alex was either the only person in the context or mentioned first. Critically, the singular interpretation was stronger when participants heard explicit instructions that Alex uses they/them pronouns, even though participants in all conditions had ample opportunity to learn this fact through observation. Results show that the social trend to talk about pronouns has a direct impact on how language is understood.
“他们”这个代词既可以是复数也可以是单数，可能指的是一个自认为非二元性别者的个体。听众如何确定“他们”是单数还是复数的意思？我们测试了明确讨论代词（例如，“亚历克斯使用他们/他们的代词”）的作用。在三个实验中，参与者阅读了简短的故事，比如“亚历克斯和利兹一起去跑步。他们摔倒了。”回答“谁摔倒了”表明参与者是否将他们理解为亚历克斯或亚历克斯和利兹。我们发现，在使亚历克斯更容易被提及的语境中，单数的回答更多：当亚历克斯是语境中唯一的人或首先被提及时。至关重要的是，当参与者听到亚历克斯使用他们/他们的代词的明确指示时，单数的解释更强，尽管所有条件下的参与者都有足够的机会通过观察来了解这一事实。结果表明，谈论代词的社会趋势对语言的理解有直接影响。
