Processing of non-binary morphological gender in rioplatense spanish

relations between voluntary use and comprehension

Abstract

Various grammatical studies have focused on the study of morphological innovations used as non-binary forms in Spanish (-x; -e). However, there are no experimental works that analyze its psycholinguistic processing or the multiple and complex relationships between production and understanding with regard to non-binary language. To analyze this phenomenon, we carried out a comprehension task with written sentences with speakers of Argentinian Spanish. We recorded reading and response times, precision, and frequency of use of non-binary forms in the participants. The results show specialization of non-binary forms as generic morphological variants, as opposed to the generic masculine. The non-binary forms consistently elicited a reference to mixed groups and the response times showed that these morphological variants do not carry a higher processing cost than the generic masculine. In this work, we also concentrate on the analysis of a factor defined as “conscious habitual use” of non-binary forms and its effett on the comprehension processes. It is possible to see that the conscious use of non-binary forms influences the comprehension of the different variants of gender morphology: as the voluntary use of non-binary forms grows, the generic masculine seems to concentrate its reference exclusively towards groups of males. Thus, in addition to showing general evidence in relation to the processing costs and ways of understanding gender morphology in Spanish, our data allow us to observe a potential reciprocal link between production and understanding processes that deserves to be studied in greater depth.