English Speakers’ Implicit Gender Concepts Influence Their Processing of French Grammatical Gender: Evidence for Semantically Mediated Cross-Linguistic Influence
Second language (L2) learners often show influence from their first language (L1) in all domains of language. This cross-linguistic influence could, in some cases, be mediated by semantics. The purpose of the present study was to test whether implicit English gender connotations affect L1 English sp...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.740920/full |
| _version_ | 1819029303227056128 |
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| author | Elena Nicoladis Chris Westbury Cassandra Foursha-Stevenson |
| author_facet | Elena Nicoladis Chris Westbury Cassandra Foursha-Stevenson |
| author_sort | Elena Nicoladis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Second language (L2) learners often show influence from their first language (L1) in all domains of language. This cross-linguistic influence could, in some cases, be mediated by semantics. The purpose of the present study was to test whether implicit English gender connotations affect L1 English speakers’ judgments of the L2 French gender of objects. We hypothesized that gender estimates derived from word embedding models that measure similarity of word contexts in English would affect accuracy and response time on grammatical gender (GG) decision in L2 French. L2 French learners were asked to identify the GG of French words estimated to be either congruent or incongruent with the implicit gender in English. The results showed that they were more accurate with words that were congruent with English gender connotations than words that were incongruent, suggesting that English gender connotations can influence grammatical judgments in French. Response times showed the same pattern. The results are consistent with semantics-mediated cross-linguistic influence. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T06:12:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-92481730cd9f46b8ba841107623e0fa6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T06:12:07Z |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-92481730cd9f46b8ba841107623e0fa62022-12-21T19:13:31ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-10-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.740920740920English Speakers’ Implicit Gender Concepts Influence Their Processing of French Grammatical Gender: Evidence for Semantically Mediated Cross-Linguistic InfluenceElena Nicoladis0Chris Westbury1Cassandra Foursha-Stevenson2Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, CanadaDepartment of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, CanadaDepartment of Psychology, Mount Royal University, Calgary, AB, CanadaSecond language (L2) learners often show influence from their first language (L1) in all domains of language. This cross-linguistic influence could, in some cases, be mediated by semantics. The purpose of the present study was to test whether implicit English gender connotations affect L1 English speakers’ judgments of the L2 French gender of objects. We hypothesized that gender estimates derived from word embedding models that measure similarity of word contexts in English would affect accuracy and response time on grammatical gender (GG) decision in L2 French. L2 French learners were asked to identify the GG of French words estimated to be either congruent or incongruent with the implicit gender in English. The results showed that they were more accurate with words that were congruent with English gender connotations than words that were incongruent, suggesting that English gender connotations can influence grammatical judgments in French. Response times showed the same pattern. The results are consistent with semantics-mediated cross-linguistic influence.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.740920/fullgrammatical gendercross-linguistic influence (CLI)covert genderlexical co-occurrencelanguage learning |
| spellingShingle | Elena Nicoladis Chris Westbury Cassandra Foursha-Stevenson English Speakers’ Implicit Gender Concepts Influence Their Processing of French Grammatical Gender: Evidence for Semantically Mediated Cross-Linguistic Influence Frontiers in Psychology grammatical gender cross-linguistic influence (CLI) covert gender lexical co-occurrence language learning |
| title | English Speakers’ Implicit Gender Concepts Influence Their Processing of French Grammatical Gender: Evidence for Semantically Mediated Cross-Linguistic Influence |
| title_full | English Speakers’ Implicit Gender Concepts Influence Their Processing of French Grammatical Gender: Evidence for Semantically Mediated Cross-Linguistic Influence |
| title_fullStr | English Speakers’ Implicit Gender Concepts Influence Their Processing of French Grammatical Gender: Evidence for Semantically Mediated Cross-Linguistic Influence |
| title_full_unstemmed | English Speakers’ Implicit Gender Concepts Influence Their Processing of French Grammatical Gender: Evidence for Semantically Mediated Cross-Linguistic Influence |
| title_short | English Speakers’ Implicit Gender Concepts Influence Their Processing of French Grammatical Gender: Evidence for Semantically Mediated Cross-Linguistic Influence |
| title_sort | english speakers implicit gender concepts influence their processing of french grammatical gender evidence for semantically mediated cross linguistic influence |
| topic | grammatical gender cross-linguistic influence (CLI) covert gender lexical co-occurrence language learning |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.740920/full |
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