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The acquisition of sex-neutral uses of masculine forms in English and Spanish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Virginia C. Gathercole
Virginia C. Gathercole*
Affiliation:
Florida International University
*
Virginia C. Gathercole, English Department, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199
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Abstract

This study examines the acquisition of sex-neutral uses of masculine terms by English- and Spanish-speaking children. English and Spanish differ in that sex-neutral uses of masculine terms are much more common in the latter, and in that English is a natural-gender language, while Spanish is a grammatical-gender language. For these reasons, it was hypothesized that Spanish-speaking children might discover the neutral, unmarked interpretations of masculine terms earlier than their English-speaking counterparts, who might have difficulty in moving away from an early sex-based interpretation of such forms to their sex-neutral application. Data from 256 children failed to confirm the hypothesis. Subjects from both language groups appeared to pay little attention to gender marking outside the noun, and they both paid less attention to masculine gender markers than to feminine gender markers outside the noun.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , December 1989 , pp. 401 - 427
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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