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Grammatical gender in German: a case for linguistic relativity?
Andrea Bender1, Sieghard Beller, Karl Christoph Klauer
1Department of Psychology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany. bender@psychologie.uni-freiburg.de
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)
|July 12, 2011
Summary
Language
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Linguistics
- Psycholinguistics
Background:
- The principle of linguistic relativity suggests language influences thought.
- Formal gender systems in language are controversial regarding their cognitive effects.
- Previous research yielded conflicting results due to methodological issues.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the influence of grammatical gender on conceptual representations.
- To examine the effect of biological gender on conceptual representations.
- To address methodological limitations in prior studies on linguistic relativity.
Main Methods:
- A priming design was employed with German native speakers.
- Participants completed four experiments using animate and nonanimate targets.
- The design aimed to prevent strategic use of gender information.
Main Results:
- Grammatical gender of primes influenced both animate and nonanimate targets.
- Biological gender of primes affected animate targets.
- No effect of biological gender was found for nonanimate targets.
Conclusions:
- Findings suggest grammatical gender influences thought for German speakers.
- The study provides evidence against a strong effect of language on thought regarding German gender.
- Methodological rigor was enhanced to yield more reliable results.
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