Neuter is not common in Dutch: eye movements reveal asymmetrical gender processing.
J Psycholinguist Res
; 42(6): 551-70, 2013 Dec.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-23229089
ABSTRACT
Native speakers of languages with transparent gender systems can use gender cues to anticipate upcoming words. To examine whether this also holds true for a non-transparent two-way gender system, i.e. Dutch, eye movements were monitored as participants followed spoken instructions to click on one of four displayed items on a screen (e.g., Klik op [Formula see text] rode appel [Formula see text], 'Click on the[Formula see text] red apple[Formula see text]'). The items contained the target, a colour- and/or gender-matching competitor, and two unrelated distractors. A mixed-effects regression analysis revealed that the presence of a colour-matching and/or gender-matching competitor significantly slowed the process of finding the target. The gender effect, however, was only observed for common nouns, reflecting the fact that neuter gender-marking cannot disambiguate as all Dutch nouns become neuter when used as diminutives. The gender effect for common nouns occurred before noun onset, suggesting that gender information is, at least partially, activated automatically before encountering the noun.
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Vocabulário
/
Movimentos Oculares
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Identidade de Gênero
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Idioma
Limite:
Adult
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Female
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Humans
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Male
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Middle aged
País/Região como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Psycholinguist Res
Ano de publicação:
2013
Tipo de documento:
Article