Interference v genderové konceptualizaci neživých referentů u maďarských bilingvistů
Interferences in the gender conceptualization of inanimate referents in the language use of bilingual Hungarian speakers

Summary/Abstract: This study deals with possible interferences in gender conceptualization of inanimate objects in the language use of bilingual speakers of Hungarian and Slovakian. The research was focused on the grammatical category of gender (present in one of the examined languages — in Slovakian — and absent in the second one — in Hungarian). The aim of the executed experiment, in which two groups of speakers participated (the test group of bilingual speakers of Hungarian and Slovakian and the control group of monolingual speakers of Hungarian), was to find out if the presence of grammatical gender in one of the two languages of the bilingual group of speakers will have any impact on their conceptualization of gender of inanimate objects. A secondary aim of the research was to ascertain if there are concordances in the answers of the participants. In the performed experiment, three different research methods were used. Participants took part in the experiment by filling an online questionnaire consisting of a part examining their language competence and language history and of a test part. The results of the experiment did not confirm the original assumption, which anticipated that the presence of grammatical gender in one of the languages of the bilingual group would have an effect on their gender conceptualization of inanimate objects. However, there were concordances in the answers of the participants (independently of language group or questionnaire type) considering individual inanimate objects.

• Details
• Contents