ERIC Number: EJ980086
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0163-853X
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Gender Representation in Different Languages and Grammatical Marking on Pronouns: When Beauticians, Musicians, and Mechanics Remain Men
Garnham, Alan; Gabriel, Ute; Sarrasin, Oriane; Gygax, Pascal; Oakhill, Jane
Discourse Processes: A Multidisciplinary Journal, v49 n6 p481-500 2012
Gygax, Gabriel, Sarrasin, Oakhill, and Garnham (2008) showed that readers form a mental representation of gender that is based on grammatical gender in French and German (i.e., masculine supposedly interpretable as a generic form) but is based on stereotypical information in English. In this study, a modification of their stimulus material was used to examine the additional potential influence of pronouns. Across the three languages, pronouns differ in their grammatical gender marking: The English "they" is gender neutral, the French "ils" is masculine, and the German "sie," although interpretable as generic, is morphologically feminine. Including a later pronominal reference to a group of people introduced by a plural role name significantly altered the masculine role name's grammatical influence only in German, suggesting that grammatical cues that match (as in French) do not have a cumulative impact on the gender representation, whereas grammatical cues that mismatch (as in German) do counteract one another. These effects indicate that subtle morphological relations between forms actually used in a sentence and other forms have an immediate impact on language processing, although information about the other forms is not necessary for comprehension and may, in some cases, be detrimental to it. (Contains 4 tables, 2 footnotes, and 1 figure.)
Descriptors: Language Processing, Form Classes (Languages), Grammar, Cues, French, German, Stereotypes, Contrastive Linguistics, Morphology (Languages), Role, English, Reading Processes, Gender Differences, Task Analysis, College Students, Sex Role
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A

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