The pronoun “they” can be either plural or singular, perhaps referring to an individual who identifies as nonbinary. How do listeners identify whether “they” has a singular or plural sense? We test the role of explicitly discussing pronouns (e.g., “Alex uses they/them pronouns”). In three experiments, participants read short stories, like “Alex went running with Liz. They fell down.” Answers to “Who fell down” indicated whether participants interpreted they as Alex or Alex-and-Liz. We found more singular responses in discourse contexts that make Alex more available: when Alex was either the only person in the context or mentioned first. Critically, the singular interpretation was stronger when participants heard explicit instructions that Alex uses they/them pronouns, even though participants in all conditions had ample opportunity to learn this fact through observation. Results show that the social trend to talk about pronouns has a direct impact on how language is understood.

代词“他们”可以是复数也可以是单数，可能是指一个认定为非二元的人。听众如何辨别“他们”是单数还是复数？我们测试明确讨论代词的作用（例如，“Alex 使用他们/他们的代词”）。在三个实验中，参与者阅读短篇小说，例如“Alex 和 Liz 一起跑步。他们倒下了。” “谁摔倒”的答案表明参与者是否将他们解释为 Alex 或 Alex-and-Liz。我们在话语上下文中发现了更多奇异的反应，使 Alex 更容易获得：当 Alex 是上下文中唯一的人或首先被提及时。至关重要的是，当参与者听到亚历克斯使用他们/他们的明确指示时，单数解释会更强代词，即使所有条件下的参与者都有足够的机会通过观察来了解这一事实。结果表明，谈论代词的社会趋势对语言的理解方式有直接影响。