Feminine fox, not so feminine box: constraints on linguistic relativity effects for grammatical and conceptual gender
The influence of grammatical gender on conceptual representations of gender has proven to be a controversial topic in the linguistic relativity literature, with empirical evidence in support of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis being highly task and context-dependent, as well as being modulated b...
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Cambridge University Press
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Language and Cognition |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1866980825000031/type/journal_article |
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| author | James Brand Mikuláš Preininger Adam Kříž Markéta Ceháková |
| author_facet | James Brand Mikuláš Preininger Adam Kříž Markéta Ceháková |
| author_sort | James Brand |
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| description | The influence of grammatical gender on conceptual representations of gender has proven to be a controversial topic in the linguistic relativity literature, with empirical evidence in support of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis being highly task and context-dependent, as well as being modulated by the type of items being investigated (animates/inanimates). In this paper, we take a megastudy approach in order to investigate differences in results based on explicit and implicit paradigms that modulate the role of language and gender in their design. We present analyses of three experiments focussing on participants (total N = 4,621) with a grammatically gendered L1 (Czech), a non-grammatically gendered L1 (English) and L1-Czech in L2-English, and on three distinct semantic categories – people, animals and inanimates (total Nitems = 1,208). Our results indicate that the most reliable effects of grammatical gender influencing conceptual gender (outside of the domain of people) are observed for items representing animals, with Czech participants showing congruency effects in both explicit and implicit paradigms, even in their L2. The evidence for effects on inanimates is substantially weaker and is highly restrained to explicit tasks. We discuss these results in relation to the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis and highlight important methodological considerations for future research. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-36c420330120438c83427a643e7611f2 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1866-9808 1866-9859 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
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| series | Language and Cognition |
| spelling | doaj-art-36c420330120438c83427a643e7611f22025-02-06T07:44:52ZengCambridge University PressLanguage and Cognition1866-98081866-98592025-01-011710.1017/langcog.2025.3Feminine fox, not so feminine box: constraints on linguistic relativity effects for grammatical and conceptual genderJames Brand0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2853-9169Mikuláš Preininger1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4849-4543Adam Kříž2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9349-5342Markéta Ceháková3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3031-257XDepartment of Psychology, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, UKFaculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czech RepublicFaculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czech RepublicFaculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czech RepublicThe influence of grammatical gender on conceptual representations of gender has proven to be a controversial topic in the linguistic relativity literature, with empirical evidence in support of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis being highly task and context-dependent, as well as being modulated by the type of items being investigated (animates/inanimates). In this paper, we take a megastudy approach in order to investigate differences in results based on explicit and implicit paradigms that modulate the role of language and gender in their design. We present analyses of three experiments focussing on participants (total N = 4,621) with a grammatically gendered L1 (Czech), a non-grammatically gendered L1 (English) and L1-Czech in L2-English, and on three distinct semantic categories – people, animals and inanimates (total Nitems = 1,208). Our results indicate that the most reliable effects of grammatical gender influencing conceptual gender (outside of the domain of people) are observed for items representing animals, with Czech participants showing congruency effects in both explicit and implicit paradigms, even in their L2. The evidence for effects on inanimates is substantially weaker and is highly restrained to explicit tasks. We discuss these results in relation to the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis and highlight important methodological considerations for future research.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1866980825000031/type/journal_articleconceptual representationgender processinggrammatical genderlinguistic relativitywhorf |
| spellingShingle | James Brand Mikuláš Preininger Adam Kříž Markéta Ceháková Feminine fox, not so feminine box: constraints on linguistic relativity effects for grammatical and conceptual gender Language and Cognition conceptual representation gender processing grammatical gender linguistic relativity whorf |
| title | Feminine fox, not so feminine box: constraints on linguistic relativity effects for grammatical and conceptual gender |
| title_full | Feminine fox, not so feminine box: constraints on linguistic relativity effects for grammatical and conceptual gender |
| title_fullStr | Feminine fox, not so feminine box: constraints on linguistic relativity effects for grammatical and conceptual gender |
| title_full_unstemmed | Feminine fox, not so feminine box: constraints on linguistic relativity effects for grammatical and conceptual gender |
| title_short | Feminine fox, not so feminine box: constraints on linguistic relativity effects for grammatical and conceptual gender |
| title_sort | feminine fox not so feminine box constraints on linguistic relativity effects for grammatical and conceptual gender |
| topic | conceptual representation gender processing grammatical gender linguistic relativity whorf |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1866980825000031/type/journal_article |
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