Reading Inclusive Language: Experimental Studies on Mental Representations of Gender and Reading Processing
During this seminar, I will present my dissertation in French linguistics, which I defended in January of this year at Lund University in Sweden. It consists of four experimental studies on the effects of French inclusive forms (such as complete pairs [actrices et acteurs], abbreviated pairs [acteur·rices], or neutral formulations [movie stars]）on mental representations of gender and reading processing among French-speaking first-language (L1) adults.
Studies I and II (n = 1,018; 153) examined the effects of different inclusive forms on the mental representations of gender activated during reading. Using various methods, we were able to show that all inclusive forms facilitate the representation of women compared to the masculine form—but that there are also certain differences among them. Studies III and IV (n = 58; 55) focused on the processing of inclusive forms compared to masculine forms. Using eye-tracking, we analyzed the eye movements of French speakers while reading texts containing an inclusive form or a masculine form. According to analyses of various eye-tracking measures, reading the full pairs does not appear to require more cognitive resources than the masculine form. In contrast, reading the abbreviated pairs produced a slight increase in processing cost during higher-level processing stages.
Open to everyone!
Organizer(s)
Speech and Language Laboratory, “From Sound to Meaning” (S2S) Research Team
Speech and Language Laboratory, Conference Room B011
5 Avenue Pasteur
13100 Aix-en-Provence
