Factors influencing L2 gender processing

Abstract

In four experiments we explored processes underlying L2 gender retrieval. We focused on L1 interference and on the influence of the L2 noun's termination. In Experiments 1 and 2 we tried to manipulate the intensity of L1 interference. We found that L2 speakers cannot eliminate or substantially reduce the interlingual interference neither when they know the response language long in advance in a situation in which code-switching is required (Experiment 1), nor when they are close to the monolingual mode (Experiment 2). Experiments 3 and 4 yielded evidence that gender typicality of the L2 noun's termination also exerts an influence on L2 processing, both in production and comprehension. L2 gender thus does not seem to be stored as a fixed feature as it is assumed for L1. Rather, our data support the assumption that it is computed anew each time when needed for processing. Further implications for modeling are discussed.

The representation of asymmetric grammatical gender systems in the bilingual mental lexicon

“…The shorter naming latencies for gender-congruent than gender-incongruent nouns is consistent with a significant body of previous research in bilinguals with symmetric gender systems (Paolieri et al 2010b;Morales et al 2011;Lemhöfer et al 2008;Bordag 2004;Bordag and Pechmann 2007) and supports the gender-integrated representation hypothesis (Salamoura and Williams 2007). Under this representation account, in the case of L1-L2 gender congruent nouns, the L2 word receives additional activation from the shared gender node given that it is activated by both the L1 and L2 words.…”

“…In bilingual studies, the L2 picture-naming paradigm has shown gender congruency effects in both NP and bare noun production in Czech-German bilinguals (Bordag 2004;Bordag and Pechmann 2007), German-Czech bilinguals (Bordag 2004), German-Dutch bilinguals (Lemhöfer et al 2008), and Italian-Spanish bilinguals (Paolieri et al 2010b;Morales et al 2011). These results support the genderintegrated representation hypothesis (Salamoura and Williams 2007), according to which the naming response is facilitated when the L1 translation equivalent noun and the L2 target word have the same gender but is inhibited when the L1 and L2 equivalent words have different genders (Figure 1).…”

“…Given the significant body of evidence (Bordag 2004;Bordag and Pechmann 2007;Lemhöfer et al 2008;Paolieri et al 2010b) in support of the gender-integrated representation hypothesis (Salamoura and Williams 2007), it is predicted that the L1 and L2 gender systems of Spanish-German bilinguals are represented as shared gender nodes. The shared representation of the bilinguals' gender systems would be evident in the presence of a gender congruency effect in which L1-L2 gender congruent nouns are named more quickly than L1-L2 gender incongruent ones.…”

Grammatical gender in translation

“…Recently, however, several studies have been conducted that address bilingual processing at the grammatical level, especially the processing of grammatical gender. Although some authors (Costa et al, 2003) have not found evidence of competition for selection between the L1 and L2 gender nodes of two translation equivalents in picture naming, other authors report systematic evidence for the so-called gender interference effect from L1, both in L2 picture naming (Bordag, 2004;Bordag and Pechmann, 2007) and in comprehension tasks (Lemhöfer et al, 2003;Hagoort, 2003 Given the differences in picture naming and translation in, for example, the processing of semantic information, the immediate question arises as to whether similar differences could also be observed at the level of grammatical encoding. More particularly, do the gender representations of translation equivalents compete for selection only in L2 picture naming, or can we also find a similar cross-language effect in translation from L1 into L2?…”

“…The empirical starting point of our research concerning the crosslanguage interference effect is a series of picture naming experiments with Czech-German unbalanced bilinguals reported by Bordag (2004;2006) and Bordag and Pechmann (2007). In these experiments, speakers of L2 Czech and German randomly produced either bare nouns or gendermarked adjectives ϩnouns under various conditions.…”