Processing of Pronouns With Gender-Inclusive –x in Spanish: An Eye-Tracking Study
Psycholinguistic research on gender-inclusive language has mainly focused on the processing of stereotyped nouns, while other work has centered on the processing of gender-inclusive morphemes (GIMs). This study focuses on Spanish and, by means of an eye-tracking technique, it examines the early and...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for Psychology
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Social Psychological Bulletin |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.32872/spb.13611 |
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| author | Alexandra Román Irizarry Rosa E. Guzzardo Tamargo |
| author_facet | Alexandra Román Irizarry Rosa E. Guzzardo Tamargo |
| author_sort | Alexandra Román Irizarry |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Psycholinguistic research on gender-inclusive language has mainly focused on the processing of stereotyped nouns, while other work has centered on the processing of gender-inclusive morphemes (GIMs). This study focuses on Spanish and, by means of an eye-tracking technique, it examines the early and late processing of pronouns ending with the gender-inclusive morpheme –x, in comparison to those ending with the canonical masculine morpheme –o and the feminine morpheme –a. It also considers emerging trends between –x and extralinguistic factors, such as gender identity, sexual orientation, experience with gender studies, and attitudes towards GIMs. Spanish-speaking university students in Puerto Rico completed a sentence reading task and a questionnaire that collected information pertaining to four extralinguistic factors. Linear mixed-effects models display that processing –x is more costly than –o in all early and late reading measures, but more costly than –a only in some early and late reading measures. Furthermore, the random-effects structure showed an inverse relationship between these differences: the smaller the difference between –x and –o, the larger the difference between –a and –x. Emerging trends with extralinguistic factors suggest future studies should further explore their relationship with gender-inclusive morpheme –x. For a holistic understanding of gender-inclusive Spanish processing at the intersection of language and gender, these findings evince the importance of examining GIMs in comparison to both canonical morphemes and measuring both early and late processing. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e2f523cbd48f454f9212fc3c58168e62 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2569-653X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for Psychology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Social Psychological Bulletin |
| spelling | doaj-art-e2f523cbd48f454f9212fc3c58168e622025-08-20T03:00:11ZengPsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for PsychologySocial Psychological Bulletin2569-653X2025-06-012010.32872/spb.13611spb.13611Processing of Pronouns With Gender-Inclusive –x in Spanish: An Eye-Tracking StudyAlexandra Román Irizarry0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1767-7515Rosa E. Guzzardo Tamargo1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3074-8680Department of Hispanic Studies, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, Puerto RicoDepartment of Hispanic Studies, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, Puerto RicoPsycholinguistic research on gender-inclusive language has mainly focused on the processing of stereotyped nouns, while other work has centered on the processing of gender-inclusive morphemes (GIMs). This study focuses on Spanish and, by means of an eye-tracking technique, it examines the early and late processing of pronouns ending with the gender-inclusive morpheme –x, in comparison to those ending with the canonical masculine morpheme –o and the feminine morpheme –a. It also considers emerging trends between –x and extralinguistic factors, such as gender identity, sexual orientation, experience with gender studies, and attitudes towards GIMs. Spanish-speaking university students in Puerto Rico completed a sentence reading task and a questionnaire that collected information pertaining to four extralinguistic factors. Linear mixed-effects models display that processing –x is more costly than –o in all early and late reading measures, but more costly than –a only in some early and late reading measures. Furthermore, the random-effects structure showed an inverse relationship between these differences: the smaller the difference between –x and –o, the larger the difference between –a and –x. Emerging trends with extralinguistic factors suggest future studies should further explore their relationship with gender-inclusive morpheme –x. For a holistic understanding of gender-inclusive Spanish processing at the intersection of language and gender, these findings evince the importance of examining GIMs in comparison to both canonical morphemes and measuring both early and late processing.https://doi.org/10.32872/spb.13611gender-inclusive languagegender-inclusive morphemeseye trackingsentence processingextralinguistic factorsspanish |
| spellingShingle | Alexandra Román Irizarry Rosa E. Guzzardo Tamargo Processing of Pronouns With Gender-Inclusive –x in Spanish: An Eye-Tracking Study Social Psychological Bulletin gender-inclusive language gender-inclusive morphemes eye tracking sentence processing extralinguistic factors spanish |
| title | Processing of Pronouns With Gender-Inclusive –x in Spanish: An Eye-Tracking Study |
| title_full | Processing of Pronouns With Gender-Inclusive –x in Spanish: An Eye-Tracking Study |
| title_fullStr | Processing of Pronouns With Gender-Inclusive –x in Spanish: An Eye-Tracking Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Processing of Pronouns With Gender-Inclusive –x in Spanish: An Eye-Tracking Study |
| title_short | Processing of Pronouns With Gender-Inclusive –x in Spanish: An Eye-Tracking Study |
| title_sort | processing of pronouns with gender inclusive x in spanish an eye tracking study |
| topic | gender-inclusive language gender-inclusive morphemes eye tracking sentence processing extralinguistic factors spanish |
| url | https://doi.org/10.32872/spb.13611 |
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