Uncommon gender. Eyes and brains, native and second language learners & grammatical gender

PhD ceremony: Ms. H. Loerts, 11.00 uur, Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen

Dissertation: Uncommon gender. Eyes and brains, native and second language learners & grammatical gender

Promotor(s): prof. M.S. Schmid

Faculty: Arts

The Dutch gender system, which divides nouns into de-words and het-words, is extremely difficult to acquire. This is due to the skewed distribution of de- and het-words (75% - 25%), the unclear division of nouns into categories (‘ de kluis’ (‘the_COM vault_COM’), ‘ het huis’ (‘the_NEU house_NEU’)), and the abstract grammatical rules of the system (‘het mooie paard’ (‘the beautiful horse’), but ‘een mooi paard’ (‘a beautiful horse’)). Can speakers use gender while listening to language? And can second language learners, who acquired Dutch after puberty, ever master such an abstract system? The experiments in Loerts’s dissertation show that, despite its abstract rules, Dutch gender is used to facilitate comprehension: native speakers use the definite article ‘de’ to predict upcoming words. The definite article ‘het’ cannot be used in a predictive fashion, probably because all Dutch nouns may be preceded by ‘het’ when used as diminutives (as in ‘ het autootje’ (‘the tiny car’)). Despite this asymmetry, native speakers responded equally robust to violations of de- and het-words (such as ‘* het tuin’ (‘the_NEU garden_COM’) and ‘* de huis’ (the_COM house_NEU)). The asymmetry did impact late second language learners’ responses: they could recognize violations of de-words after extensive exposure to Dutch, but violations of het-words (such as ‘* de brood’ (‘the_COM bread_NEU’)) were not recognized as being incorrect. Late learners were also unable to use gender-marking to predict upcoming words. Learning an asymmetrical and abstract system only seems feasible after years of exposure. And even then the uncommon gender, the het-words, remains a major stumbling block.