research project

hi!

[xenoneopronouns]

⭐ Research on nounpronouns and aliuspronouns ⭐

Hi! Do you use nounpronouns (i.e. pronouns such as flower/flowerself or 🌸/🌸-self, stemming from a noun), aliuspronouns (such as xe/xir, which differ from the canonical pronouns she/he/they/it, and do not fall under the umbrella of nounpronouns), or both? Are you 18 years or older and would you like to add to the scientific/linguistic understanding we have of these types of pronouns?

With my current paper I attempt to gain more understanding as to why people use these pronouns, and in which contexts they are used! The survey won't take more than 15 minutes to complete, and can be done in your own time! 🥰

There are three different surveys:

Individuals who only use nounpronouns and not aliuspronouns, click here: https://uva.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eOSpls9MfrUeyaO

Individuals who only use aliuspronouns and not nounpronouns, click here: https://uva.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_82ZibuKreDmnIFM

Individuals who use both, click here: https://uva.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eJSSRoCDKHRZZaK

Thank you so much for your time, and please share if you can! 🌈🎀

[xenoneopronouns]

Hello everyone, thank you for your wonderful feedback! I have changed the wording in my post and survey (and research) to reflect the more commonly used terms used in the community. If you have already filled in the first survey, please do not fill it in again. Thank you again for your feedback! 🥰🙏

[xenoneopronouns]

⭐ Research on nounpronouns and aliuspronouns ⭐

Hi! Do you use nounpronouns (i.e. pronouns such as flower/flowerself or 🌸/🌸-self, stemming from a noun), aliuspronouns (such as xe/xir, which differ from the canonical pronouns she/he/they/it, and do not fall under the umbrella of nounpronouns), or both? Are you 18 years or older and would you like to add to the scientific/linguistic understanding we have of these types of pronouns?

With my current paper I attempt to gain more understanding as to why people use these pronouns, and in which contexts they are used! The survey won't take more than 15 minutes to complete, and can be done in your own time! 🥰

There are three different surveys:

Individuals who only use nounpronouns and not aliuspronouns, click here: https://uva.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eOSpls9MfrUeyaO

Individuals who only use aliuspronouns and not nounpronouns, click here: https://uva.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_82ZibuKreDmnIFM

Individuals who use both, click here: https://uva.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eJSSRoCDKHRZZaK

Thank you so much for your time, and please share if you can! 🌈🎀

[xenoneopronouns]

Data collection notice for The use of xenopronouns and neopronouns in online spaces

This data is collected in the public interest as part of the research project The use of xenopronouns and neopronouns in online spaces, conducted by Lucy van Dijk under supervision of dr. Suzanne Aalberse at the University of Amsterdam.

Purpose of the research project

Third person singular pronouns in English for human beings are typically restricted to he, she, or they. However, on social media platforms such as X (formerly known as Twitter), Tumblr, or Reddit, some people show a preference for other pronouns, such as xe/xeself, flower/flowerself, or 🌸/🌸-self. There has not yet been much research done on these types of pronouns.

In this research, I study publicly available blog posts and blogs of people who use xenopronouns, i.e. pronouns such as flower/flowerself or 🌸/🌸-self, to gain insight in this topic, and in order to create a good questionnaire and prepare interview questions. I am also interested in how these pronouns differ from neopronouns. This research is important because it gives us insight into how language is used creatively online, how language changes, and how language plays a role in identity.

What data is collected?

I collect data from public blog posts from Tumblr that contain either the tag #xenopronouns or use the word xenopronouns in their post, sorted by most popular as of April 2026.

I search for public tweets containing the word xenopronouns as of April 2026.

I search for the keyword xenopronouns on Subreddits such as r/nonbinary, r/nonbinarytalk, and r/xenogendersandmore, sorted by popularity.

The dataset comprises approximately 50 posts.

Discomfort, Risks & Insurance

The risks of participating in this research are no greater than in everyday situations at home. Previous experience in similar research has shown that no or hardly any discomfort is to be expected for participants.

For all research at the University of Amsterdam, a standard liability insurance applies.

Data subject rights according to the GDPR  More information about the rights as data subjects under the EU privacy law, the GDPR, can be found online at this website: https://extranet.uva.nl/en/content/a-z/privacy/what-are-my-rights/what-are-my-rights.html. 

Confidential treatment of personal data

The information gathered over the course of this research will be used for the purpose of this research project. Personal details will not be used in publications. Blog posts will be anonymized in the final article, and the corpus with the blog posts will be password protected, only accessible to other researchers with permission.

Answers to the questionnaire will be stored anonymously along with a corpus of blogposts. These data will be stored for a period of 10 years and are only accessible to other researchers after a motivated request. The personal data will only be stored as long as is necessary for the research and will be deleted as soon as possible.

Further information

For further information on the research project, please contact dr. Suzanne Aalberse (phone number: +31 20 – 525 4721; email: [email protected]; Spuistraat 134, 1012VB Amsterdam) or Lucy van Dijk (email: [email protected]).

If you have any complaints regarding this research project, you can contact the secretary of the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam, [email protected]; Binnengasthuisstraat 9, 1012 ZA Amsterdam, The Netherlands.