The Influence of Grammatical Gender on Object Conceptualization Is Weak and Language-Dependent
Listed in
This article is not in any list yet, why not save it to one of your lists.Abstract
Do we make gendered associations with objects whose linguistic labels have a masculine/feminine grammatical gender? This question derives from the neo-Whorfian view that language shapes our conceptualizations of the world. Previous research has provided mixed answers. Here, we present three experiments where we tested for the gender effect on object cognition using a word association approach: a first group of participants generated adjectives for nouns referring to objects and a second group subsequently rated those adjectives for masculinity/femininity. In Experiment 1, with native French speakers, semantically related object nouns that have opposite grammatical gender (masculine vs. feminine) in French were tested; in Experiment 2, with native French and German speakers, we used translation equivalents that are assigned opposite grammatical gender in the two languages. Results from both experiments showed the absence of gender effect in French, while a small gender effect was found in German. Then, in Experiment 3, we tested a new group of German participants on the same items, which were now presented without gender markers; we again observed a small gender effect. In line with previous findings, we also found that people ascribe more feminine qualities to natural entities and masculine qualities to artificial entities. Taken together, we conclude that the influence of grammatical gender on object conceptualization is weak and dependent on language.
