Search Results (2)

Although much has been written in recent years on the emergence of non-binary English linguistic innovations, comparatively little has been written on non-binary French forms, especially neo-morphemes marking non-binary gender on nouns. As French is a grammatical-gender language with a traditionally binary (masculine and feminine) system, many non-binary Francophones have circumvented the social connection between grammatical gender and human gender in innovating new, non-binary markers for animate nouns and their modifiers. This study uses a mixed methods approach, combining analysis of non-binary French grammars alongside interview data in order to highlight the divergent morphological approaches underlying non-binary marking systems. Three approaches to the formation of non-binary nouns are identified: A Compounding Approach, which combines masculine and feminine markers; a Systematic Approach, which phonologically conditions the use of non-binary allomorphs, with the markers themselves ranging from phonologically novel within French syllabic structure, to homophonous with masculine and/or feminine variants; and an Invariable Approach, which applies a single non-binary marker across all nouns. Ultimately, this study disentangles both morphological patterns in the formation of non-binary words and some of the motivations behind them in an emerging French subtype well-known to be heterogeneous. Full article

Evidence derived from functional imaging and brain-lesion studies has shown a strong left lateralization for language, and a complementary right hemisphere dominance for visuospatial abilities. Nevertheless, the symmetrical functional division of the two hemispheres gives no reason for the complexity of the cognitive operations involved in carrying out a linguistic task. In fact, a growing number of neuroimaging and neurostimulation studies suggest a possible right hemisphere involvement in language processing. The objective of this work was to verify the contribution of the left and right parietal areas in a phonological task. We applied anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the right or left inferior parietal lobe, during a syllabic reordering task. After having learnt a combination of images of real objects and trisyllabic pseudowords with a simple consonant–vowel (CV) syllabic structure (e.g., tu-ru-cu), participants were shown the same images paired to two different pseudowords: one correct but with transposed syllables, and one alternative, never before seen. The participant’s task was to orally produce the chosen pseudoword, after having rearranged the order of its syllables. Two types of error were considered: transposition (correct pseudoword but incorrectly reordered) and identity (incorrect pseudoword). The results showed that right anodal stimulation significantly reduced the number of transposition errors, whereas left anodal stimulation significantly reduced the number of identity errors. These results suggested that both left and right inferior parietal areas were differentially involved in a syllabic reordering task, and, crucially, they demonstrated that visuospatial processes served by the right inferior parietal area could be competent for establishing the correct syllabic order within a word. Full article