On 29 October, Oleksandra Osypenko, visiting PhD student from Lancaster University, will present her work on "Measuring brain potentials in Ukrainian-Russian bilinguals: investigating the effects of two contrasting grammatical gender systems".

Time: 13.15-15.00

On-site: SOL:A158

Zoom Link: https://lu-se.zoom.us/j/62491331134

Abstract:

Our study explores the principle of linguistic relativity (Whorf, 1956), focusing on how the languages people speak influence cognition, specifically through the lens of grammatical gender. We examine how this linguistic feature in the native languages of Ukrainian-Russian simultaneous bilinguals impacts cognitive processes. Using an adapted nonverbal categorization task (Sato, Casaponsa, & Athanasopoulos, 2020), participants were asked to judge the similarity between pictures of objects and gendered faces. To investigate whether grammatical gender primes conceptual gender, we combine behavioral measures (reaction times and accuracy) with electrophysiological recordings (ERPs). Previous research has shown moderate behavioral effects and modulations of brain potentials such as N300, P2/VPP (Sato et al., 2020), and LAN (Boutonnet et al., 2012) in sequential bilinguals (with a gendered L1 and a genderless L2), supporting the idea that grammatical gender can unconsciously shape cognition. 

 

Our study builds on this by examining simultaneous bilinguals with two gendered languages (Ukrainian and Russian), each of which has a three-gender system, while conducting the task in the context of genderless English (L2). Moreover, addressing critiques in the field, we investigate whether speakers of three-gendered languages show less cognitive influence from gender compared to speakers of binary-gender languages, where gender may be more salient (Sera et al., 2002). We utilize stimuli with both matching (e.g., "strawberry," feminine in both languages) and mismatching grammatical gender (e.g., "moon," masculine in Ukrainian, feminine in Russian). Based on previous research, we predict ERP modulations, including the N300 and P2/VPP waves, further illustrating the influence of grammatical gender on perceptual and semantic processing.