Grammatical gender and linguistic relativity: A systematic review

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Cognitive Psychology
• Linguistic Relativity

Background:

• Languages often assign grammatical gender to nouns, potentially influencing conceptualization.
• The linguistic relativity hypothesis posits that language shapes thought.
• Previous research explored if grammatical gender affects how speakers conceptualize objects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review empirical research on grammatical gender and its influence on thought.
• To assess the support for the linguistic relativity hypothesis in this context.
• To evaluate the role of task and context in observed effects.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of 43 empirical studies.
• Analysis of findings from 5,895 participants.
• Classification of results based on hypothesis support and influencing parameters.

Main Results:

• Support for the grammatical gender influencing thought hypothesis was task- and context-dependent.
• Findings often relied on explanations with viable alternatives.
• No consistent evidence was found across studies.

Conclusions:

• The influence of grammatical gender on conceptualization is not robustly demonstrated.
• Task and context significantly moderate any potential effects.
• The utility of grammatical gender as a tool for studying linguistic relativity remains questionable.