Arnold 2026: two kinds of singular they

Singular they covers two uses with opposite pragmatic conditions. Underspecified they, attested since Middle English, is used when the speaker intends an underspecified representation of the referent — quantified, indefinite, epicene, or simply not developed in common ground — and its criterion is discourse specificity rather than gender, since it occurs with gendered referents too. Personal they, mainstream only since about 2018, is used because the referent's personal pronouns are they/them, a fact that must be in common ground and that tends to come with an elaborated representation. The two share their form and their lack of a gender feature, so a grammatical account of the kind Konnelly and Cowper give does not separate them: at their first stage they is unavailable for any referent of known gender, at the second it needs an ungendered lexical entry for the referent, and at the third it is unconstrained, whichever kind is intended.

Main definitions

• Kind, Kind.condition: the two kinds and the discourse condition each requires of a referent's Representation.

References

• [Arn26]
• [KC20] — the three-stage grammatical account
• [Bal04] — the history of underspecified they

inductive Arnold2026.Kind : Type

The two kinds of singular they.

• underspecified : Kind
• personal : Kind

@[instance_reducible]

instance Arnold2026.instDecidableEqKind : DecidableEq Kind

Equations

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

def Arnold2026.instReprKind.repr : Kind → ℕ → Std.Format

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
• Arnold2026.instReprKind.repr Arnold2026.Kind.personal prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "Arnold2026.Kind.personal")).group prec✝

@[instance_reducible]

instance Arnold2026.instReprKind : Repr Kind

Equations

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

def Arnold2026.Kind.parse? : String → Option Kind

The kind a row records.

Equations

• Arnold2026.Kind.parse? "underspecified" = some Arnold2026.Kind.underspecified
• Arnold2026.Kind.parse? "personal" = some Arnold2026.Kind.personal
• Arnold2026.Kind.parse? x✝ = none

structure Arnold2026.Representation : Type

A referent as the discourse portrays it: whether its representation is elaborated, and whether its personal pronouns are known in common ground to be they/them.

• elaborated : Bool
• theyThem : Bool

@[instance_reducible]

instance Arnold2026.instDecidableEqRepresentation : DecidableEq Representation

Equations

• Arnold2026.instDecidableEqRepresentation = Arnold2026.instDecidableEqRepresentation.decEq

def Arnold2026.instDecidableEqRepresentation.decEq (x✝ x✝¹ : Representation) : Decidable (x✝ = x✝¹)

Equations

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

def Arnold2026.instReprRepresentation.repr : Representation → ℕ → Std.Format

Equations

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

@[instance_reducible]

instance Arnold2026.instReprRepresentation : Repr Representation

Equations

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

def Arnold2026.Representation.ofRow (r : Datum) : Representation

The representation a row records.

Equations

• Arnold2026.Representation.ofRow r = { elaborated := decide (r.feature? "representation" = some "elaborated"), theyThem := decide (r.feature? "pronouns" = some "they/them") }

def Arnold2026.Kind.condition : Kind → Representation → Prop

The pragmatic condition of each kind: underspecified they wants a thin representation, personal they wants the referent's pronouns known.

Equations

• Arnold2026.Kind.underspecified.condition x✝ = (x✝.elaborated = false)
• Arnold2026.Kind.personal.condition x✝ = (x✝.theyThem = true)

@[instance_reducible]

instance Arnold2026.instDecidableCondition (k : Kind) (r : Representation) : Decidable (k.condition r)

Equations

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

theorem Arnold2026.conditions_opposed (r : Representation) (hu : Kind.underspecified.condition r) (hp : Kind.personal.condition r) : r = { elaborated := false, theyThem := true }

No representation satisfies both conditions unless the pronouns are known of a thinly represented referent — which knowing them precludes.

theorem Arnold2026.rows_conditions (r : Datum) : r ∈ Examples.all → r.feature? "counterexample" = none → ∀ k ∈ (r.feature? "kind" >>= Kind.parse?).toList, k.condition (Representation.ofRow r)

Every example meets the condition of its kind, apart from the stage-3 production the paper flags as a would-be counterexample.

theorem Arnold2026.rows_gendered_referents (r : Datum) : r ∈ Examples.all → r.source.paperLabel = "Table 1" → r.feature? "kind" = some "underspecified" ∧ r.feature? "referentGender" = some "known"

Underspecified they occurs with gendered referents: every Table 1 example has a referent of known gender.

theorem Arnold2026.rows_personal_elaborated (r : Datum) : r ∈ Examples.all → r.feature? "kind" = some "personal" → (Representation.ofRow r).elaborated = true

Personal they is used for elaborated representations in every example, though its criterion mentions only the pronouns.

theorem Arnold2026.stages_do_not_separate_kinds : "they" ∉ KonnellyCowper2020.forms KonnellyCowper2020.Stage.one KonnellyCowper2020.kelly ∧ "they" ∈ KonnellyCowper2020.forms KonnellyCowper2020.Stage.two KonnellyCowper2020.kelly ∧ "they" ∉ KonnellyCowper2020.forms KonnellyCowper2020.Stage.two KonnellyCowper2020.maria ∧ "they" ∈ KonnellyCowper2020.forms KonnellyCowper2020.Stage.three KonnellyCowper2020.maria

On the grammatical account the two kinds do not differ: they for a referent of known gender is blocked at stage 1, needs an ungendered lexical entry at stage 2, and is free at stage 3.