PROCESSING OF GENDER NEUTRAL NOUNS (EPICENA): TESTING THE COGNITIVE RELEVANCE OF SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC AGREEMENT OF SERBIAN EPICENE NOUNS ENDING IN -ICA IN DIFFERENT SYNTACTIC ENVIRONMENTS USING ACCEPTABILITY JUDGEMENT MEASURES

Abstract

This experiment adds to the growing literature on gender agreement processing, and processing of gender neutral nouns, having collected data from speakers of a less represented Indo-European language. Although Serbian shares many similarities with other morphologically rich languages that have been more thoroughly researched, the results of the present study emphasise the necessity for a more balanced and thorough investigation of small and rarely studied languages. As gender processing is becoming a more prevalent research topic in psycholinguistics, yielding a vast body of research and linguistic theories (Corbett 1979, 2006) attempting to account for miscellaneous and often conflicting research results (Bañón et al. 2012) the necessity for a more uniform research approach to rarely studied languages becomes paramount. Otherwise, forming a linguistic theory with the ability to account for a vast array of inconsistencies and discrepancies found in rarely studied languages becomes unattainable. In addition, this study is the first investigation into both within-phrase and across-phrase gender processing of epicene nouns in Serbian. The study of gender agreement processing, such as the study conducted by Popov (2020), had long focused only on either processing of common nouns, different subtypes of epicenes in either within-phrase position (Košprdić 2016), or the general influence of syntactic distance on gender processing (Bañón et al. 2012). Studies focusing on gender agreement processing of epicenes are, in my opinion, crucial, as they examine how humans process agreement of nouns that do not disposing of clearly defined, stable gender features, or in other words, where agreement depends on both the linguistic and non-linguistic (referential) context. The study of epicenes and gender processing of epicenes in different syntactic positions has yet to reach this more ecologically valid step. The present experiment provides the important first step in understanding how gender agreement processing of nouns with ambiguous gender might be facilitated by the syntactic proximity of the agreeing elements. Studying these questions brings us closer to understanding gender agreement processing and language comprehension more broadly.