UC Berkeley

Language users frequently encounter generic personal statements, which refer to a person or group of people whose gender is irrelevant or unknown (e.g., “A doctor must go to medical school.”). Though intended as gender-neutral, generic terms have been found to elicit an assumption of a male referent – i.e., a male bias. Whereas male bias studies in English have typically analyzed generic-used pronouns, German studies have overwhelmingly focused on plural nouns. As a result, male bias in English and German singular nouns is less understood. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether English and German language users are equally likely to read a singular generically intended noun as male. My dissertation remedies this gap by analyzing how linguistic differences between English and German impact the likelihood of interpreting a generically intended singular noun as male. Specifically, in my project, I contrast how the two languages impart gender information, both as a result of inherent properties – e.g., grammatical and lexical gender – as well as linguistic practices, such as the generic masculine (GM) – the “generic” use of male-specific terms – and the adoption of GM alternatives. I argue that singular generic nouns are more likely to elicit a male bias in German due to grammatical gender, higher rates of gender-specific personal nouns, and increased use of gender-specific terms in generic contexts. By contrasting English and German singular nouns, this project sheds new light on the potential sources of male bias in generic language.