Grammatical Gender in German Influences How Role-Nouns Are Interpreted: Evidence from ERPs

• Published in: Discourse processes Vol. 56; no. 8; pp. 643 - 654
• Main Authors: Misersky, Julia, Majid, Asifa, Snijders, Tineke M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Routledge 17.11.2019; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Accuracy; Advertisements; Brain Hemisphere Functions; Diagnostic Tests; Distinctive Features (Language); Equal Opportunities (Jobs); Event-related potentials; Females; Femininity; Foreign Countries; Gender Differences; Gender-inclusive language; German; German language; Grammar; Grammatical gender; Language Processing; Language Research; Males; Masculinity; Men; Nouns; Reading Processes; Role; Sex Role; Women; Germany
• ISSN: 0163-853X; 1532-6950
• DOI: 10.1080/0163853X.2018.1541382

Grammatically masculine role-nouns (e.g., Studentenmasc.'students') can refer to men and women but may favor an interpretation where only men are considered the referent. If true, this has implications for a society aiming to achieve equal representation in the workplace since, for example, job adverts use such role descriptions. To investigate the interpretation of role-nouns, the present ERP study assessed grammatical gender processing in German. Twenty participants read sentences where a role-noun (masculine or feminine) introduced a group of people, followed by a congruent (masculine-men, feminine-women) or incongruent (masculine-women, feminine-men) continuation. Both for feminine-men and masculine-women continuations a P600 (500 to 800 ms) was observed; another positivity was already present from 300 to 500 ms for feminine-men continuations but critically not for masculine-women continuations. The results imply a male-biased rather than gender-neutral interpretation of the masculine-despite widespread usage of the masculine as a gender-neutral form-suggesting that masculine forms are inadequate for representing genders equally.