@cite{arnold-2026}

Arnold, Jennifer E. 2026. Two kinds of singular they: A usage-based model. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics X(X). 1–14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.23998

Core Contribution

English singular they is not one phenomenon but two, distinguished by inversely correlated pragmatic conditions:

1. Underspecified singular they (the older form, attested since Middle English; @cite{balhorn-2004}): licensed when the referent's discourse representation is underspecified — quantified, indefinite, epicene, or not elaborated in the discourse. The key criterion is discourse specificity (@cite{newman-1992} "solidity", @cite{newman-1998} "individuation", @cite{camilliere-etal-2021} "social distance"), not gender per se.

2. Personal singular they (the newer form, emerging ~2018): licensed when the referent's personal pronouns are known to be they/them and this fact is in common ground. Co-occurs with highly specific discourse representations.

The two uses share phonological form (they) and the absence of a contrastive gender feature, but have opposite pragmatic preconditions: underspecified they requires a thin discourse representation, while personal they requires a thick one.

Formalization

We model the distinction using three components:

• DiscourseElaboration: how developed the referent's discourse representation is (underspecified vs. elaborated)
• Typology.PronounSpec: what personal pronouns the referent uses (if known)
• Features.GenderInfo: what gender information is available in the discourse

The licensing conditions are predicates over these types, and the central claim — that the two kinds of singular they are licensed by inversely correlated conditions — is a theorem.

Connection to Grammatical Accounts

@cite{konnelly-cowper-2020} propose a 3-stage grammatical account where variation in acceptance of singular they reflects changes in the gender feature system (contrastive → variably marked → fully underspecified). Arnold's account complements this by centering pragmatic conditions on use, particularly the role of discourse elaboration, which the grammatical account does not address.

inductive Arnold2026.SingTheyKind : Type

The two kinds of singular they (@cite{arnold-2026} §1).

These are distinguished by their pragmatic licensing conditions:

• Underspecified: discourse representation is thin (§2)
• Personal: referent's pronouns are known to be they/them (§3)

• underspecified : SingTheyKind

  Underspecified singular they: the older form, licensed by underspecified discourse representation.

• personal : SingTheyKind

  Personal singular they: the newer form, licensed by knowledge that the referent's personal pronouns are they/them.

@[implicit_reducible]

instance Arnold2026.instDecidableEqSingTheyKind : DecidableEq SingTheyKind

Equations

• Arnold2026.instDecidableEqSingTheyKind x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯

@[implicit_reducible]

instance Arnold2026.instReprSingTheyKind : Repr SingTheyKind

Equations

• Arnold2026.instReprSingTheyKind = { reprPrec := Arnold2026.instReprSingTheyKind.repr }

def Arnold2026.instReprSingTheyKind.repr : SingTheyKind → ℕ → Std.Format

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def Arnold2026.instBEqSingTheyKind.beq : SingTheyKind → SingTheyKind → Bool

Equations

• Arnold2026.instBEqSingTheyKind.beq x✝ y✝ = (x✝.ctorIdx == y✝.ctorIdx)

@[implicit_reducible]

instance Arnold2026.instBEqSingTheyKind : BEq SingTheyKind

Equations

• Arnold2026.instBEqSingTheyKind = { beq := Arnold2026.instBEqSingTheyKind.beq }

def Arnold2026.licensesUnderspecified (de : Features.DiscourseElaboration) : Bool

Underspecified singular they is licensed when the referent's discourse representation is underspecified.

@cite{arnold-2026} §2: "Singular they is preferred when the speaker intends to evoke an underspecified mental representation for the addressee in the discourse."

Equations

• Arnold2026.licensesUnderspecified Features.DiscourseElaboration.underspecified = true
• Arnold2026.licensesUnderspecified Features.DiscourseElaboration.elaborated = false

def Arnold2026.licensesPersonal (spec : Option Typology.PronounSpec) : Bool

Personal singular they is licensed when the referent's personal pronouns are known to be they/them.

@cite{arnold-2026} §3: "the pragmatic condition for using personal they is knowing that the referent's personal pronouns are they/them." This knowledge must be in common ground.

Equations

• Arnold2026.licensesPersonal (some Typology.PronounSpec.theyThem) = true
• Arnold2026.licensesPersonal spec = false

def Arnold2026.classifyUse (de : Features.DiscourseElaboration) (spec : Option Typology.PronounSpec) : Option SingTheyKind

Classify a singular they use given the discourse state.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

theorem Arnold2026.personal_excludes_underspecified (spec : Typology.PronounSpec) (hspec : spec = Typology.PronounSpec.theyThem) (de : Features.DiscourseElaboration) (hde : de = Features.DiscourseElaboration.elaborated) : licensesPersonal (some spec) = true ∧ licensesUnderspecified de = false

Core theorem: the licensing conditions for the two kinds of singular they are inversely correlated.

When the referent has a known they/them pronoun specification and an elaborated discourse representation (the typical case for personal they), underspecified they is NOT licensed.

theorem Arnold2026.underspecified_excludes_personal (de : Features.DiscourseElaboration) (hde : de = Features.DiscourseElaboration.underspecified) (spec : Option Typology.PronounSpec) (hspec : spec = none) : licensesUnderspecified de = true ∧ licensesPersonal spec = false

Conversely, when the discourse representation is underspecified (the typical case for underspecified they), personal they is NOT licensed — there is not enough information about the referent to know their pronouns.

theorem Arnold2026.no_simultaneous_licensing (de : Features.DiscourseElaboration) (spec : Option Typology.PronounSpec) (_h : licensesPersonal spec = true) : de = Features.DiscourseElaboration.elaborated → licensesUnderspecified de = false

The two licensing conditions never simultaneously fire on the same discourse state (when elaboration and pronoun knowledge are consistent). If a referent has they/them pronouns, the discourse model is necessarily elaborated (you know enough about them to know their pronouns).

inductive Arnold2026.AntecedentType : Type

Antecedent type classification for singular they.

@cite{arnold-2026} Table 1 shows that singular they occurs with quantified, indefinite, and definite antecedents, even when the referent has a known gender. What unifies these uses (under the underspecified account) is that the discourse representation is thin, not that gender is unknown.

• quantified : AntecedentType

  "There's not a man I meet but doth salute me as if I were their well-acquainted friend" (Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, 1623).

• indefinite : AntecedentType

  "a single mother and their three children"

• definiteUnelaborated : AntecedentType

  "My son will swing by to pick up my order." / "just have them call us when they are here" — definite but not elaborated.

@[implicit_reducible]

instance Arnold2026.instDecidableEqAntecedentType : DecidableEq AntecedentType

Equations

• Arnold2026.instDecidableEqAntecedentType x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯

def Arnold2026.instReprAntecedentType.repr : AntecedentType → ℕ → Std.Format

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

@[implicit_reducible]

instance Arnold2026.instReprAntecedentType : Repr AntecedentType

Equations

• Arnold2026.instReprAntecedentType = { reprPrec := Arnold2026.instReprAntecedentType.repr }

def Arnold2026.instBEqAntecedentType.beq : AntecedentType → AntecedentType → Bool

Equations

• Arnold2026.instBEqAntecedentType.beq x✝ y✝ = (x✝.ctorIdx == y✝.ctorIdx)

@[implicit_reducible]

instance Arnold2026.instBEqAntecedentType : BEq AntecedentType

Equations

• Arnold2026.instBEqAntecedentType = { beq := Arnold2026.instBEqAntecedentType.beq }

def Arnold2026.antecedentElaboration : AntecedentType → Features.DiscourseElaboration

All underspecified-they antecedent types have underspecified discourse elaboration. This is Arnold's core claim: the unifying factor is discourse specificity, not antecedent definiteness.

Equations

• Arnold2026.antecedentElaboration Arnold2026.AntecedentType.quantified = Features.DiscourseElaboration.underspecified
• Arnold2026.antecedentElaboration Arnold2026.AntecedentType.indefinite = Features.DiscourseElaboration.underspecified
• Arnold2026.antecedentElaboration Arnold2026.AntecedentType.definiteUnelaborated = Features.DiscourseElaboration.underspecified

theorem Arnold2026.table1_all_license_underspecified (a : AntecedentType) : licensesUnderspecified (antecedentElaboration a) = true

All Table 1 antecedent types license underspecified singular they.

theorem Arnold2026.singThey_is_epicene : Fragments.English.Pronouns.genderOf "they" = Fragments.English.Pronouns.GenderParadigm.epicene ∧ Fragments.English.Pronouns.genderOf "them" = Fragments.English.Pronouns.GenderParadigm.epicene ∧ Fragments.English.Pronouns.genderOf "themself" = Fragments.English.Pronouns.GenderParadigm.epicene

Singular they (both kinds) maps to the epicene gender paradigm in the English pronoun system.

theorem Arnold2026.epicene_not_surface : Fragments.English.Pronouns.GenderParadigm.epicene.toSurfaceGender = none

The epicene paradigm has no single SurfaceGender equivalent — it is a pronoun-system gender class, not a noun-system agreement class. This reflects the asymmetry between pronoun selection (which depends on discourse state) and noun agreement (which depends on morphosyntactic features).

theorem Arnold2026.underspecified_gender_licenses_underspecified_they : licensesUnderspecified Features.DiscourseElaboration.underspecified = true

Underspecified gender info — where gender is unknown — is the discourse-level condition that licenses underspecified they.

theorem Arnold2026.elaborated_blocks_underspecified : licensesUnderspecified Features.DiscourseElaboration.elaborated = false

@cite{arnold-2026} §4.1: the contexts supporting personal they are often inconsistent with underspecified they. Elaborated discourse representations (naming, describing, narrating about a person) make underspecified they infelicitous because the discourse model is no longer thin.

theorem Arnold2026.personal_has_stronger_precondition : licensesUnderspecified Features.DiscourseElaboration.underspecified = true ∧ licensesPersonal none = false ∧ licensesPersonal (some Typology.PronounSpec.heHim) = false ∧ licensesPersonal (some Typology.PronounSpec.sheHer) = false ∧ licensesPersonal (some Typology.PronounSpec.theyThem) = true

@cite{arnold-2026} §4.3: personal they is harder than underspecified they. This is modeled by the additional requirement: personal they needs pronoun knowledge in common ground, while underspecified they only needs a thin discourse model.

theorem Arnold2026.pronoun_implies_elaborated : Features.AccessibilityLevel.unstressedPron.toElaboration = Features.DiscourseElaboration.elaborated

Pronouns (high accessibility) correlate with elaborated discourse representations — you use a pronoun for a referent that is already well-established in the discourse. The bridge function AccessibilityLevel.toElaboration is defined in Core.Discourse.Accessibility.

theorem Arnold2026.fullName_implies_underspecified : Features.AccessibilityLevel.fullName.toElaboration = Features.DiscourseElaboration.underspecified

Full names (low accessibility) correlate with underspecified discourse representations — the referent is being (re-)introduced.

theorem Arnold2026.structural_gender_consistency : Fragments.English.Pronouns.they_sg.genderParadigm = Fragments.English.Pronouns.they.genderParadigm

Singular and plural they share the same gender paradigm — the structural genderParadigm field agrees across number.