graduate studies
Trevor Block to bridge gaps in research on acquisition of singular they using CGRS-D scholarship
Congratulations to Trevor Block! He has been awarded a Canada Graduate Research Scholarship for doctoral research titled Singular They: Understanding Acquisition Through Ratings, Processing, and Production.
Please tell us about your CGRS-D project.
This project will evaluate a full description of the current stages of acquisition of singular they that North American English speakers are at. Unlike previous studies that evaluate singular they speakers using only a single type of data, I will be using a combination of rating data, processing data, and production data to account for variation among speakers.
What inspired you to pursue this line of research?
Recent research went from claiming that there are two stages of singular they speakers (Bjorkman, 2017), to three stages (Konnelly & Cowper, 2020), with evidence of four stages upon a re-evaluation of my thesis data (Block, 2017). But, these stages are all determined either by naturalness ratings or by processing studies. It seemed incomplete to say that a speaker鈥檚 current stage of acquisition could be determined without integrating judgments, processing, and production, so my dissertation aims to bridge the gaps between all three and create a more cohesive story. Is it truly accurate to say that a person who accepts singular they and uses it frequently is in the same stage of acquisition as someone who accepts singular they but never considers using it? The unexplored (dis?)connections between production and perception are extremely interesting to me.