"They" as singular pronoun

[Deborah Siegel]

Childes community.

Is there research that has looked at when children begin 
to understand the use of "they" as a singular 
gender-neutral pronoun? For example: "Someone walked into 
a store and they bought a newspaper."

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Debbie Siegel



Deborah Siegel
Department of Psychology
University of California at Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA 95064