53 research outputs found
Grammatical gender and linguistic relativity: A systematic review
Many languages assign nouns to a grammatical gender class, such that âbedâ might be assigned masculine gender in one language (e.g. Italian) but feminine gender in another (e.g. Spanish). In the context of research assessing the potential for language to influence thought (the linguistic relativity hypothesis), a number of scholars have investigated whether grammatical gender assignment ârubs offâ on concepts themselves, such that Italian speakers might conceptualise beds as more masculine than Spanish speakers. We systematically reviewed 43 pieces of empirical research examining grammatical gender and thought, which together tested 5,895 participants. We classified the findings in terms of their support for this hypothesis, and assessed the results against parameters previously identified as potentially influencing outcomes. Overall, we found that support was strongly task- and context-dependent, and rested heavily on outcomes that have clear and equally-viable alternative explanations. We also argue that it remains unclear whether grammatical gender is in fact a useful tool for investigating relativity
The role of nonverbal working memory in morphosyntactic processing by children with specific language impairment and autism spectrum disorders
Abstract Background Both children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and children with specific language impairment (SLI) have been shown to have difficulties with grammatical processing. A comparison of these two populations with neurodevelopmental disorders was undertaken to examine similarities and differences in the mechanisms that may underlie grammatical processing. Research has shown that working memory (WM) is recruited during grammatical processing. The goal of this study was to examine morphosyntactic processing on a grammatical judgment task in children who varied in clinical diagnosis and language abilities and to assess the extent to which performance is predicted by nonverbal working memory (WM). Two theoretical perspectives were evaluated relative to performance on the grammatical judgment taskâthe âworking memoryâ account and the âwrap-upâ account. These accounts make contrasting predictions about the detection of grammatical errors occurring early versus late in the sentence. Methods Participants were 84 school-age children with SLI (nâ=â21), ASD (nâ=â27), and typical development (TD, nâ=â36). Performance was analyzed based on diagnostic group as well as language status (normal language, NL, nâ=â54, and language impairment, LI, nâ=â30). A grammatical judgment task was used in which the position of the error in the sentence (early versus late) was manipulated. A visual WM task (N-back) was administered and the ability of WM to predict morphosyntactic processing was assessed. Results Groups differed significantly in their sensitivity to grammatical errors (TDâ>âSLI and NLâ>âLI) but did not differ in nonverbal WM. Overall, children in all groups were more sensitive and quicker at detecting errors occurring late in the sentence than early in the sentence. Nonverbal WM predicted morphosyntactic processing across groups, but the specific profile of association between WM and early versus late error detection was reversed for children with and without language impairment. Conclusions Findings primarily support a âwrap upâ account whereby the accumulating sentence context for errors positioned late in the sentence (rather than early) appeared to facilitate morphosyntactic processing. Although none of the groups displayed deficits in visual WM, individual differences in these nonverbal WM resources predicted proficiency in morphosyntactic processing
Individual language experience modulates rapid formation of cortical memory circuits for novel words
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