Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
5-24-2025
Published In
Proceedings Of The Linguistic Society Of America
Abstract
English neopronouns have been reported difficult to learn or use because of their low frequency, and because pronouns are a closed category, and are rated below ceiling in acceptability surveys. Hekanaho (2022) reports that metalinguistic commentary about neopronouns includes themes of prescriptivism, unfamiliarity, ‘weirdness,’ and confusion. In this study, we examine whether exposure to neopronouns during a survey increased acceptability ratings. Neopronouns were rated higher when seen later in the survey. We analyze metalinguistic comments from the survey in which participants report their experiences in the survey as educational or instructive, suggesting that some order effects may be reflective of actual learning.
Keywords
neopronouns, pronouns, task adaptation, acceptability, metalinguistic commentary
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Emilia Pike-Acosta , '25; Juyeon Seo , '25; Vic Wen ,'26; Finn Verdonk , '26; and Kirby Conrod.
(2025).
"Learning New Neopronouns Or Task Adaptation?".
Proceedings Of The Linguistic Society Of America.
Volume 10,
Issue 1.
DOI: 10.3765/plsa.v10i1.5952
https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-linguistics/277
Comments
This work is freely available under a Creative Commons license.