Language impacts how individuals negotiate their understanding of the world. However, language changes. For example, how pronouns are used (“they”, “he”, and “she”) has changed over time, reflecting different views of gender. The main aim of this thesis was to understand how individuals interpret gender-related pronouns, with a particular focus on the pronoun “they”.

A systematic review and three empirical studies were conducted. The systematic review established a historical timeline of how “they” is interpreted, used, and accepted. “They” is interpreted with many meanings today (e.g., neutral, masculine, feminine, singular, and plural). Furthermore, “they” is becoming a more common pronoun choice today than it was in the 1970s, and more accepted. This information advised the empirical studies. Study 1 investigated parents’ interpretation of pronouns and assessed parents’ perceptions of how their children interpret pronouns. Parents interpret “they” as neutral, “she” as feminine and “he” as masculine. Moreover, parents expect their children’s language to match their own. In Study 2, children’s interpretations of pronouns were explored through drawings. Children tend to interpret “she” as feminine. However, children did not interpret “they” as more neutral than other pronouns nor “he” as more masculine than other pronouns. Instead, they interpret “he” as neutral, which contrasts with parents’ perceptions in Study 1. Study 3 examined whether individuals’ pronoun choices can be influenced using children’s literature focused on pronouns. The findings showed that adults’ classification of “they” to masculine and feminine illustrations was influenced by the literature. However, there were no differences in children’s classification of pronouns.

In summary, this thesis provides novel and contemporary evidence for individuals’ interpretation of pronouns, updating information on children’s interpretation of pronouns from previous studies, some of which were conducted over 20 years ago. Adults interpret the pronoun “they” with many meanings, and their interpretation can be influenced by literature, whilst children appear to interpret “they” without a neutral and gendered meaning.