Please join us for the following talk in room G26, 7 George Square. The link to the online Teams meeting will be sent to the mailing list closer to the time for those who cannot join us in Edinburgh.

Speaker

Time and date

Tuesday 28th April, 2 PM.

Title and abstract

This project is interested in the intersection of language, beliefs, and lived experience. Drawing on previous research which has investigated the links between gendered grammar and real-world perception of gender (Philips & Boroditsky, 2003; Elpers, Jensen & Holmes 2022), and early insights into how transgender individuals might have a different understanding of social gender which affects their perception of grammatical gender (Ackerman, 2021), this project explores whether gender identity and personal beliefs affect a speaker’s ability to acquire gender-neutral grammar. Participants, grouped by gender identity (transgender or not) and beliefs (supportive/unsupportive of trans identity), participate in an artificial language learning task where they learn Blorpese, a language with three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine and neuter). They are then tested on their acquisition of the gender-neutral pronoun through the use of eye-tracking. Early findings show that while participants’ stance on trans identity does not affect their ability to learn gender-neutral pronouns, trans participants might have an advantage at acquiring the neuter gender over non-trans participants. There are still many further options to expand upon these results.

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