Lecture | Sociolinguistics & Discourse Studies Series
The knowledge, comprehensibility and appreciation of gender-neutral pronouns in Dutch and French
- Date
- Monday 7 October 2024
- Time
- Location
-
Herta Mohr
Witte Singel 27A
2311 BG Leiden - Room
- 0.22
Abstract
In recent years, the resurgence of activism advocating for gender-inclusive language has led to the introduction and promotion of gender-neutral pronouns in several languages. In Dutch, the pronouns hen and die have gained prominence and been officially recognized by the Dutch Language Union as gender-neutral forms. In French, iel has emerged as the most widely used gender-neutral pronoun, gaining public attention largely due to the controversy surrounding its inclusion in the Le Robert online dictionary in 2021. An alternative, al, has been proposed, though it remains less well-known. Some prefer al over iel due to its avoidance of combining the binary pronouns il and elle. These pronouns are proposed for both specific reference to non-binary individuals and for generic use, i.e., reference irrespective of the antecedent’s gender.
As part of an international research team, I am involved in research into the knowledge, comprehensibility and appreciation of gender-neutral pronouns in Dutch and French. For Dutch, our results (Decock et al. 2024; Decock et al. in press; Verhaegen et al. submitted) so far indicate that language users are increasingly familiar with gender-neutral pronouns, and that these forms do not impair text comprehensibility when compared to other referential strategies. However, they may negatively impact text appreciation. Additionally, findings suggest that die is preferred over hen in subject position, and that the generic use of gender-neutral pronouns is favoured over their use in reference to non-binary individuals. In contrast to gender-neutral pronouns in Dutch, the French gender-neutral pronoun iel does impair text comprehensiblity, but only compared to repeating the person's name, not compared to using binary pronouns. Moreover, iel impairs text appreciation compared to all other strategies. The use of the pronoun al does not seem to negatively affect either text appreciation or text comprehensibility (Vincent et al. in prep). With our research on this topic, we aim to contribute to an empirical underpinning of the public debate on gender-inclusive language reform.