Grammatical gender is a complex classification system and is often referred to as one of the most difficult grammatical categories for second language (L2) speakers to master. Previous research has focused on anticipatory processing of grammatical gender cues in first language (L1) speakers of various gendered languages (French, Spanish, Dutch, etc.) and has found that speakers use gender information from a preceding determiner to facilitate access to a gender-congruent noun (e.g., Dussias et al., 2013; Lew-Williams & Fernald, 2010). These findings have been consistently found among speakers of various languages when they were presented with congruent vs. incongruent determiner phrases (DPs), subsequently collapsing across grammatical genders (e.g., congruent: la maison and le bateau vs. incongruent: *le maison vs. *la bateau). Responses to individual genders cues in Spanish has been teased apart (masculine vs. feminine) as well as the effect of inhibitory control on gender processing (Beatty-Martínez, et al., 2020). A correlation between grammatical gender error recovery and increased inhibitory control was found. The current dissertation aims to dissect the processing and underlying neural mechanisms associated with masculine and feminine grammatical gender in L1 French, simultaneous French-English, and L1 English-L2 French speakers.
A series of three experiments were conducted. The first two experiments used a masked priming lexical decision task where participants were presented with congruent (e.g., la maison) and incongruent (*le maison) DPs. The first experiment employed a behavioural version of the task and the second experiment focused on event-related brain potentials (ERPs). At a behavioural level, there was no indication of grammatical gender cue use. However, ERP results show that L1 speakers employ distinct processing mechanisms for feminine (P200; *le maison) incongruencies compared to feminine congruencies (la maison). The final experiment consisted of a self-paced reading task, where participants read sentences with congruent and incongruent DPs and an AX-CPT task as a measure of inhibitory control. L1 French and simultaneous French-English speakers exhibit processing difficulties with the incongruent feminine condition (*le maison) compared to the congruent feminine condition (la maison), as well as with the incongruent masculine condition (*la bateau) compared to the congruent masculine condition (le bateau). On the other hand, L2 speakers only show difficulty with the incongruent feminine condition in relation to the congruent feminine condition. Further, there was no relationship between inhibitory control and grammatical gender processing across groups.
Overall, the results reflect an intricate picture of grammatical gender processing in French speakers. At a lexical level, L1 French speakers likely process incongruent feminine DPs as a lexical clash, potentially implementing further cognitive resources during processing. At a syntactic level, L1 French and simultaneous French-English speakers show processing difficulties behaviourally to gender incongruencies. L2 speakers seem to employ the use of masculine grammatical gender cues, implying that it is perhaps the presence of a feminine noun causing processing difficulty due to a feature mismatch. These results indicate that masculine and feminine genders employ distinct processing mechanisms and may be accessed in a contrasting manner.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/45871 |
| Date | 22 January 2024 |
| Creators | Manning, Gabrielle |
| Contributors | Sabourin, Laura |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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