The Effects of Grammatical Gender on Referent Processing in German: An ERP Study
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2016-08-30
Language
en
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Abstract
Grammatically masculine forms can refer to men and women, but
may favour male-specific interpretations. Using a match-mismatch
paradigm, the present ERP study assessed how masculine grammatical
gender in role nouns affects referent processing in German. Twenty
participants read sentences in which a stereotypically neutral role
noun (grammatically masculine or feminine) introduced a group of
people. A sentence continuation specified the group as consisting in
part of men or women, meaning continuations were either congruent
(masculine–men, feminine–women) or incongruent (masculine–women,
feminine–men) to the grammatical gender of the role noun. Incongruent
continuations were expected to result in an N400-P600 complex.
Between 300 and 500 ms, no N400-like effect was observed. Following
masculine role nouns, all continuations were processed similarly
(p = .891). Following feminine role nouns, incongruent continuations
elicited more positive responses than congruent ones (p = .045). Between
500 and 800 ms, a P600-like effect was observed. For both
masculine and feminine role nouns, incongruent continuations resulted
in more positive responses than incongruent ones (p = .039).
The results are discussed in terms of a two-stage model: Initially, the
incongruency between the masculine and women continuations goes
unnoticed, yet leads to processing difficulties later on, implying a
male-specific interpretation.
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen