A behavioral study to investigate the processing routes of grammatical gender in Brazilian Portuguese

Natália Carolina Alencar Resende; Mailce Borges Mota

doi:10.17851/2237-2083.25.3.1367-1395

A behavioral study to investigate the processing routes of grammatical gender in Brazilian Portuguese

Natália Carolina Alencar Resende, Mailce Borges Mota

Abstract

Abstract: In this paper, we present a behavioral study aimed at investigating whether inanimate grammatical gender transparent nouns (feminine nouns ending in -a and masculine nouns ending in -o) and inanimate grammatical gender opaque nouns (other endings) in Brazilian Portuguese are processed by the same or by distinct cognitive mechanisms. To this purpose, 19 subjects participated in a grammatical gender agreement task in two conditions: between a determiner (definite article) and a noun (condition 1), and a noun and an adjective (condition 2). Factors such as frequency of the nouns and adjectives (high vs. low) as well as their phonological form (gender transparent vs. gender opaque) were manipulated. Results show that, in both conditions, frequency is a strong predictor of faster reaction times, suggesting that gender transparent and gender opaque forms can be stored in memory. This pattern holds for both conditions. We interpret this finding as evidence for the single-mechanism view of language processing.

Keywords: grammatical gender; Brazilian Portuguese.

Resumo: Este artigo apresenta um estudo comportamental que teve como objetivo investigar se substantivos inanimados do português do Brasil, transparentes quanto ao seu gênero gramatical (substantivos femininos terminados em -a e masculinos terminados em -o) e opacos (outras terminações) são ou não processados por mecanismos cognitivos distintos. Para tanto, uma tarefa de concordância de gênero foi executada por 19 sujeitos em duas condições: entre um artigo definido e um substantivo (condição 1) e entre um substantivo e um adjetivo (condição 2). Fatores como a frequência dos substantivos e adjetivos (alta vs. baixa) e forma fonológica (transparente vs. opaca) foram manipulados. Os resultados mostram que, em ambas as condições, a frequência é um forte preditor de respostas mais rápidas, sugerindo que tanto formas transparentes quanto formas opacas podem ser armazenadas na memória. Este padrão foi encontrado em ambas as condições. Estes resultados foram interpretados como evidência para a visão unitária de processamento da linguagem.

Palavras-chave: gênero gramatical; português do Brasil.

Keywords

grammatical gender; Brazilian Portuguese.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17851/2237-2083.25.3.1367-1395