Linguistic Relativity and the L2 Learner: An Investigation of the Effects of L2 Grammatical Gender on L1 Conceptual Gender

Mikhayla Sheeley

Previous research into the linguistic relativity effects of grammatical gender has shown that native speakers of gendered languages tend to assign conceptual genders to inanimate objects based on the grammatical genders of those objects’ nouns and that this effect may transfer from one’s first language (L1) to their second language (L2). As of yet, few studies have investigated the alternate possibility of L2 to L1 transfer in native speakers of genderless languages learning gendered L2s. In this study, native English-speaking university students who were studying Spanish and/or German completed a pair of tasks designed to reveal the conceptual genders they assigned to a set of inanimate English nouns, as well as their knowledge of the grammatical genders of those nouns in their L2. The results indicate that the grammatical gender system of one’s L2 may influence conceptual gender assignments in their L1 and that the degree of influence increases as one progresses in their study of the L2 and becomes more familiar with the L2’s grammatical gender system. These findings correspond with the findings of previous studies on the transfer of L2 grammatical gender to L1 conceptual gender and provide further evidence in support of the linguistic relativity hypothesis.