Grammatical gender in noun phrase production: The gender interference effect in German.

This hypothesis predicts that in picture-word interference experiments on noun phrase production in early selection languages like German, one should obtain a gender interference effect, and in 2 experiments on German, this prediction is confirmed.

Abstract

Languages appear to differ in the way definite determiners are selected during noun phrase production. M. Miozzo and A. Caramazza (1999) proposed that a distinction should be made between early- and late-selection languages. In early-selection languages, the noun's gender uniquely specifies the definite determiner, whereas in late-selection languages the definite determiner can be specified only during the phonological encoding of the noun phrase. This hypothesis predicts that in picture-word interference experiments on noun phrase production in early selection languages like German, one should obtain a gender interference effect. In 2 experiments on German, this prediction is confirmed. The implications of these results for the proposed distinction between early- and late-selection languages are discussed.