On the processing costs induced by reading nonbinary pronouns in Dutch
Maria den Hartog, Noortje Akkermans, Tamara Mauro, Levi Voeteé & Helen de Hoop (Radboud Universiteit)
Dutch has different third-person singular personal pronouns, two of which are used to refer to men and women respectively, namely hij ‘he’ and zij ‘she’. Over the last decade, some other pronouns have been proposed to specifically refer to somebody who identifies as nonbinary, the most notable of which is the third-person plural object pronoun hen ‘them’ (TNN, 2016).
The introduction of this nonbinary personal pronoun causes resistance among some language users and may give rise to interpretation difficulties. Since the pronoun hen is already used as a third-person plural object pronoun in Dutch, it may be particularly difficult to interpret hen when it is used as a third-person singular (3SG) subject. The current study investigates whether the newly introduced nonbinary pronoun hen is processed differently from masculine and feminine pronouns, and to what extent participants’ experience with and attitude towards nonbinary pronouns influence how they are processed. An event-related potential (ERP) experiment was conducted among native Dutch young adults (n = 51) who read a text in which the nonbinary personal pronoun hen and the nonbinary possessive pronoun hun ‘their’ were used. ERPs were computed time-locked to the onset of 3SG pronouns and the finite verbs following 3SG subject pronouns. The results indicate a complex relationship between self-reported use of nonbinary pronouns and the processing cost of reading nonbinary pronouns reflected in the Nref. Those who report using nonbinary pronouns more often show a reduced Nref time-locked to the finite verb following 3SG nonbinary subject pronouns. Nref amplitude has previously been associated with problems in establishing a link between a pronoun and a referent in the discourse (Nieuwland, 2014). Therefore, this result suggests that the link between a nonbinary pronoun and a referent may be processed more easily by those with more experience with nonbinary pronouns. Our results also show that for nonbinary pronouns the N400 amplitude time-locked to the finite verb following 3SG nonbinary subject pronouns decreases in the course of the experiment. The N400 is a component that is associated with semantic processing difficulties (Nieuwland and van Berkum, 2006). This suggests that semantic processing difficulties related to nonbinary pronouns decrease with exposure. While we expected to find additional processing costs related to syntactic violations when hen was used as a subject pronoun, reflected in a P600 component (Kaan et al., 2000), the results do not support this.
Overall, our results seem to show that Dutch young adults who use nonbinary pronouns themselves process them more easily, and exposure to a text which uses the nonbinary pronouns hen and hun can lead to a reduction in processing cost within a short amount of time. Our study thus sheds light on the processing costs induced by reading nonbinary pronouns, and how longer- and short-term exposure to these pronouns relate to the processing cost of nonbinary pronouns.
References
Kaan, E., Harris, A., Gibson, E., & Holcomb, P. (2000). The P600 as an index of syntactic integration difficulty. Language and Cognitive Processes, 15(2), 159–201. https://doi.org/10.1080/016909600386084
Nieuwland, M. S. (2014). “Who’s he?” Event-related brain potentials and unbound pronouns. Journal of Memory and Language, 76, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2014.06.002
Nieuwland, M. S., & Van Berkum, J. J. A. (2006). When Peanuts Fall in Love: N400 Evidence for the Power of Discourse. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18(7), 1098–1111. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2006.18.7.1098
TNN. (2016b, June 10). Zo maak je na toiletten ook taal genderneutraal. Transgender Netwerk Nederland. Retrieved February 20, 2023, from https://www.transgendernetwerk.nl/non-binair-voornaamwoord-uitslag/