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Clauses with singular they were read "just as quickly as clauses containing a gendered pronoun that matched the stereotype of the antecedent" (e.g. she for a nurse and he for a truck driver) and "much more quickly than clauses containing a gendered pronoun that went against the gender stereotype of the antecedent". [156]
Singular they is a use of they as an epicene (gender-neutral) pronoun for a singular referent. [7] [8] In this usage, they follows plural agreement rules (they are, not *they is), but the semantic reference is singular. Unlike plural they, singular they is only used for people. For this reason, it could be considered to have personal gender.
Consider the singular “they, ... And then there were words that Baron said filled a “semantic black hole,” words that didn’t exist until they were invented, likely, just for this purpose. ...
The singular they emerged by the 14th century, about a century after the plural they. Even when used with singular meaning, they takes a plural verb: If attacked, the victim should remain exactly where they are. Due to this supposed grammatical inconsistency, use of singular they was discouraged by some grammarians during the nineteenth and ...
Singular they had emerged by the 14th century as a third-person pronoun, about a century after the plural they, [7] and is first attested in the 14th-century poem William and the Werewolf. [8] Neopronouns were not coined until the 18th century. [1]
The third-person singular personal pronouns (and their possessive forms) are gender specific: he/him/his (masculine gender, used for men, boys, and male animals), she/her(s) (feminine gender, for women, girls, and female animals), the singular they/them/their(s) (common gender, used for people or animals of unknown, irrelevant, or non-binary ...
singular I me my/mine [# 1] mine plural we us our ours 2nd person singular informal thou thee thy/thine [# 1] thine plural informal ye you your yours formal you 3rd person singular he/she/it him/her/it his/her/his (it) [# 2] his/hers/his [# 2] plural they them their theirs
In (14), singular they occurs with a quantified singular antecedent or a singular antecedent of unknown gender. In (15), singular they occurs with a singular antecedent known to be nonbinary or ungendered. In (16), singular they occurs with a singular antecedent of any gender, with no restriction on description or name.