Rights statement: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=BIL The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Bilingualism, 16 (4), pp 792-807 2013, © 2013 Cambridge University Press.
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Gender inferences
T2 - grammatical features and their impact on the representation of gender in bilinguals
AU - Sato, Sayaka
AU - Gygax, Pascal M.
AU - Gabriel, Ute
N1 - http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=BIL The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Bilingualism, 16 (4), pp 792-807 2013, © 2013 Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2013/10
Y1 - 2013/10
N2 - We investigated the effects of grammatical and stereotypical gender information on the comprehension of human referent role nouns among bilinguals of a grammatical (French) and a natural gender language (English). In a sentence evaluation paradigm, participants judged the acceptability of a gender-specific sentence referring to either a group of women or men following a sentence containing the plural form of a role noun female (e.g., social workers), male (e.g., surgeons) or neutral (e.g., musicians) in stereotypicality. L1 French and L1 English bilinguals were tested both in French and English. The results showed that bilinguals construct mental representations of gender associated with the language of the task they are engaged in, shifting representations as they switch languages. Specifically, in French, representations were male-dominant (i.e., induced by the masculine form), whereas in English, they were stereotype-based. Furthermore, the results showed that the extent to which representations shifted was modulated by participants’ proficiency in their L2, with highly proficient L2 participants resembling native speakers of the L2 and less proficient L2 participants being influenced more by their native language.
AB - We investigated the effects of grammatical and stereotypical gender information on the comprehension of human referent role nouns among bilinguals of a grammatical (French) and a natural gender language (English). In a sentence evaluation paradigm, participants judged the acceptability of a gender-specific sentence referring to either a group of women or men following a sentence containing the plural form of a role noun female (e.g., social workers), male (e.g., surgeons) or neutral (e.g., musicians) in stereotypicality. L1 French and L1 English bilinguals were tested both in French and English. The results showed that bilinguals construct mental representations of gender associated with the language of the task they are engaged in, shifting representations as they switch languages. Specifically, in French, representations were male-dominant (i.e., induced by the masculine form), whereas in English, they were stereotype-based. Furthermore, the results showed that the extent to which representations shifted was modulated by participants’ proficiency in their L2, with highly proficient L2 participants resembling native speakers of the L2 and less proficient L2 participants being influenced more by their native language.
KW - gender representation
KW - grammatical gender
KW - gender stereotypes
KW - masculine form
KW - generic interpretation
U2 - 10.1017/S1366728912000739
DO - 10.1017/S1366728912000739
M3 - Journal article
VL - 16
SP - 792
EP - 807
JO - Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
JF - Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
SN - 1366-7289
IS - 4
ER -