When Voisins Can Be Women and When They Cannot – Masculine Generics in French: An Experimental Study on the Influence of Stereotypicality and Role Noun Type on the Interpretation of Masculine Role Nouns

di Clara Stumm (Autore)

Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. KG, 2025

This book examines whether masculine plural role nouns in French trigger a male-specific interpretation. By closely replicating the French sample of an experiment run by Gygax et al. in 2008, Experiment 1 suggests that stereotypically male, neutral and female masculine role nouns tend to be associated with men. Experiment 2 focuses on the role noun type of stereotypically neutral role nouns (occupational nouns vs. non-occupational nouns) and indicates that the masculine role nouns were interpreted as referring to both men and women. While the findings of Experiment 1 align with an extensive body of previous empirical research, the results of Experiment 2 challenge most previous findings. In other words, the interpretation of masculine role nouns seems to be influenced by multiple factors and appears to be a complex phenomenon. In this vein, the approach sketched in this book is a step towards understanding the interpretation of masculine role nouns as a multifactorial phenomenon.

• Autore: Clara Stumm
• Editore: Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. KG
• Collana: Linguistik in Empirie und Theorie/Empirical and Theoretical Linguistics
• Anno: 2025
• Rilegatura: Paperback / softback
• Pagine: 269 p.
• Dimensioni: 210 x 148 mm
• EAN: 9783662716625

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