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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Altering male-dominant representations
T2 - a study on nominalized adjectives and participles in first and second language German
AU - Sato, Sayaka
AU - Gabriel, Ute
AU - Gygax, Pascal M.
PY - 2016/12
Y1 - 2016/12
N2 - The generic use of masculine plural forms in grammatical gender languages has been criticized for activating unequal gender representations that are male dominant. The present study examined whether the recently introduced gender-neutral forms of nominalized adjectives and participles in German provide references that induce more balanced representations. We used cross-linguistic differences as a means to illustrate the flexibility of the gender representation system and investigated both native and nonnative (French–German bilinguals) speakers of German. Although a masculine bias persisted when participants read role nouns in the masculine plural form, the study suggests that the usage of nominalized forms can attenuate this male bias, even for nonnative speakers. The results of the study provide further support for the use of gender-neutral language.
AB - The generic use of masculine plural forms in grammatical gender languages has been criticized for activating unequal gender representations that are male dominant. The present study examined whether the recently introduced gender-neutral forms of nominalized adjectives and participles in German provide references that induce more balanced representations. We used cross-linguistic differences as a means to illustrate the flexibility of the gender representation system and investigated both native and nonnative (French–German bilinguals) speakers of German. Although a masculine bias persisted when participants read role nouns in the masculine plural form, the study suggests that the usage of nominalized forms can attenuate this male bias, even for nonnative speakers. The results of the study provide further support for the use of gender-neutral language.
KW - gender representation
KW - grammatical gender
KW - second language comprehension
KW - gender-fair language
KW - male bias
U2 - 10.1177/0261927X15625442
DO - 10.1177/0261927X15625442
M3 - Journal article
VL - 35
SP - 667
EP - 685
JO - Journal of Language and Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Language and Social Psychology
SN - 0261-927X
IS - 6
ER -