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Gender and lexical access in Bulgarian
Elena Andonova1, Simona D'Amico, Antonella Devescovi
1New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria. eandonova@nbu.bg
Perception & Psychophysics
|July 31, 2004
Summary
Semantic and grammatical gender influence Bulgarian noun processing, with semantic gender uniquely impacting gender monitoring. Cross-linguistic differences in gender effects were observed between Bulgarian and Italian languages.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Linguistic Anthropology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Lexical access is influenced by various linguistic factors.
- Previous research on Italian (a two-gender language) explored gender effects on noun processing.
- Bulgarian, a three-gender language, offers a unique case for comparative analysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of semantic and grammatical gender on Bulgarian noun recognition and processing.
- To compare findings with previous studies in Italian, a two-gender language.
- To explore the interaction between subject's sex and noun gender in lexical access.
Main Methods:
- Auditory presentation of Bulgarian nouns in randomized lists.
- Two tasks: word repetition and grammatical gender identification.
- Reaction time measurement influenced by phonological factors, word frequency, and gender marking irregularity.
Main Results:
- Phonological factors, word frequency, and gender marking irregularity affected reaction times in both tasks.
- Semantic and grammatical gender significantly influenced only the gender monitoring task.
- A notable interaction between subject's sex and noun gender was observed, particularly for females.
Conclusions:
- Semantic gender plays a significant role in Bulgarian noun processing, contrasting with Italian findings.
- The study highlights cross-linguistic differences in how gender affects lexical access.
- Natural gender effects can dissociate, and gender processing may be influenced by the subject's own gender identity.