User:Ram5156psuedu/sandbox

Me Hello everyone. My name is Rebecca Morris. I am a 26 year-old student at Penn State Brandywine Campus. I am doing this for my Psychology of Language class. TESTING. BOLD [[Bold]]

Good Morning! What are everyone's thoughts on our group assignment? There are benefits and setbacks of both creating a new article and contributing to an existing article, so I wanted to see what everyone was interested in doing. Does anyone have ideas of where we should focus our research on? EJudd86 (talk) 14:39, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

Hi everyone. I'm unsure as to how large our contribution should be. In looking at the pages available, the one that talks about spanish gender could have the use of articles added to it, but I don't believe that would be a substantial contribution. That was my first thought. Another thought would be to try to create a page on German gender since that is covered in the book, similar to the page on spanish gender usage; although there may already be a page like that. Ram5156psuedu (talk) 02:06, 2 June 2016 (UTC)

I also found some interesting research on the effects bilinguists and one language having grammatical gender that I thought was interesting. I don't know if this could possibly be a section of something we could add to or something we could start. Any thoughts?

Ram5156psuedu (talk) 19:31, 2 June 2016 (UTC)

I think the idea about the effects of gender between bilinguists is a great idea. I'm also concerned about whether or not we will be able to make substantial contributions towards articles, yet I don't know where we would begin when it comes to creating our own page. EJudd86 (talk) 20:20, 2 June 2016 (UTC)

I think that focusing on German grammatical gender usage would be an interesting task, especially since there are no Wikipedia pages that I can find that go into depth about it. A definitive source that would definitely be helpful in our studies on this would be our textbook (Language in Mind: Advances in the Study of Language and Thought- Gentler & Goldin-Meadow), especially Chapter 4: Sex, Syntax, and Semantics, where it talks in detail about the grammatical gender Germans use for different objects, how this helps them remember things, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alliewodack (talk • contribs) 02:18, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

I found an article that looks at the difficulties people face learning German as a foreign language based on the use of gender. I think this could be useful for part of our page. https://applij-oxfordjournals-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/content/8/1/48.full.pdf+html EJudd86 (talk) 02:30, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

I found an interesting website that talks about the three main genders use in the German language.. Ram5156psuedu (talk) 02:33, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

Hi all! I think both of the things you have mentioned here (German grammatical gender, and bilingualism in relation to languages with conflicting genders) would both be great (and obviously related). I think expanging sections of the relevant articles would be sufficient, as it will be a little complex to coordinate. Maybe you could start by making a list here of which articles would be involved, and then figure out what needs to be added to each, and who will do what. yEvb0 (talk) 11:21, 4 June 2016 (UTC)

Sandbx ish

Hey everyone, here's my go at trying to create the lead section to the wikipage we're creating on the use of gender in german grammar.

Every noun in German is considered to be feminine(die), masculine (der), or neuter (das).

Like most other languages that are defined by gender the German language can be difficult to learn and understand. Gender is widely used in German especially for something as simple as forming a sentence, thus making it imperative to grasp the language for accuracy. There are rules to learning to different languages and it essential for gender to be used in the German language as understanding the language will not be clear if gender is misused or misunderstood. Gender assignment to the German language must be done with a purpose as the argument in linguistics has posed whether or not pairing gender with nouns is stored in the mental lexicon. Essentially researches are curious to know if the human mind has the capability to remember to combine gender with words for retrieval. To learn the German language it has posed a question that asks if gender should be memorized alongside with lexical terms or if gender can be learned by using rules and regulations that follow the German language. Britz16 (talk) 22:51, 9 June 2016 (UTC)

In German, nouns denoting a person's gender such as man or woman, agree with the noun being described. However, for the rest of the nouns in the language, many nouns can be broken down into the three gender categories and follow simple rules. For example, in German, masculine "things" can be considered: male people, male animals, most instruments, days, months, seasons, and most weather expressions, cardinal points, makes of cars, most rivers not in Germany, and nouns ending in -en. Next we have feminine, this can include: female people, female animals, German rivers, and nouns ending in -e. Lastly, neuter things include: human and animal babies, metals, verbs that turn into nouns (such as the word life), nouns ending in -ment.Ram5156psuedu (talk) 23:21, 9 June 2016 (UTC)

The use of gendered nouns in language has led many to ask whether or not grammatical gender influences the way one processes and experiences what is around them. Although many studies have shown that the use gendered nouns do effect the way people perceive and link things together, the German language has proved harder to show a direct effect. One of the speculations as to why gendered nouns in German seem to effect the thought process less is that instead of having two gendered nouns like a lot of other languages, German uses three gendered nouns (feminine, masculine, and neuter). Despite the less obvious link, at a closer look German gendered nouns are still found to have an effect (albeit a more general effect) on the cognitive process. EJudd86 (talk) 20:31, 9 June 2016 (UTC)

Some ways that gendered nouns have an effect on the cognitive process is through memory. In our textbook, it is mentioned that those whose languages have gendered nouns are more likely to remember said noun when it is given a proper name that corresponds to the gender they sort it under, such as an apple being named Patrick. This memory mechanism would be extremely useful, in my opinion, for children who are just starting to learn a language. In addition to that, gendered nouns also effect the cognitive process by categorization. For instance, in the German language, the word "key" is masculine, and German people would associate this word with adjectives such as jagged, rough, hard, etc. On the other hand, they would categorize a feminine noun with adjectives such as little, shiny, or tiny. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alliewodack (talk • contribs) 21:13, 9 June 2016 (UTC)

You guys have added some really excellent information here! I think the main thing to work on is to integrate/merge the paragraphs you have each individually contributed. yEvb0 (talk) 15:11, 13 June 2016 (UTC)

Hey guys! I read your project topic and gender studies is always super interesting. Everyone has great ideas and my suggestion for you is to maybe look at articles on cultural gender beliefs and how that ties into language. Just an idea for you guys. Great topic though! Megannd1993 (talk) 14:58, 16 June 2016 (UTC)MeganMegannd1993 (talk) 14:58, 16 June 2016 (UTC)

Masculine(männlich): This gender recieves the article der. In general this is used referring to male people (der Mann=the man), their jobs (der Präsident=the president), and male animals (der Stier=the steer). The masculine gender article der is also used when referring to seasons (der Sommer=the summer), months (der Januar=the January), days of the week (der Montag=the Monday), and most weather (der Regen=the rain). Additionally, nouns ending in -en, -el, -ling, -ismus, -ner, -ig, -ich, or -er will also be considered masculine (männlich). Lastly, the masculine is used when referring to most instruments (der Kugelschreiber = the pen), points on a compass ("der Norden"=the north), makes of cars ("der Volvo"=the Volvo), and most non-German rivers("der Mississippi"=the Mississippi). Ram5156psuedu (talk) 15:05, 16 June 2016 (UTC)

Feminine: The feminine gender marker of nominative words in German is die. It is used when speaking of a female person (die Frau= "the woman"), or a female animal (die gans= the goose), ships and airplanes (die Boeing) and numbers/counting (die Eins = "the one"). Die is also commonly employed in all nouns that end in the following ways: -ung, -schaft, -ion, -heit, -keit, -tat, -age, -enz, -esse, -euse, -ur and -ik. -e is mostly used for feminine words , but can also be used for several specific masculine words. Unlike the masculine der that is used to describe non-German rivers, the feminine die is used when referencing rivers within Germany (die Mosel, die Elbe, die Weser). EJudd86 (talk) 22:11, 16 June 2016 (UTC)

Neuter :This can be referred to as one of the three genders in German as well as many other languages that can be used to describe people and inanimate objects. Understanding neuter is very much similar to learning masculine & feminine as it a requirement for proficiency in the German Language. By creating neuter this allowed grammatical gender to be linked to familiar or ideal concepts of sex. Typically neuter will be in contrast with feminine and masculine and while the nouns may be the same across all three genders it is the endings that will change. For the word "the" this will be "Das" in the German neuter language while it will become "Der" in masculine & "Die" in feminine. While feminine and masculine describe female and male gendered words such neuter will be the perfect example to describe an object like a table or a couch (mostly non-living items or objects). The purpose of learning neuter is very much similar to learning masculine and feminine as this affects the other elements of the language; therefore, everything must be in accordance for the proper grammar. Britz16 (talk) 23:20, 16 June 2016 (UTC)

"When speaking about grammatical gender, it is important to make the appropriate links to cognition and memory. For instance, the article "der" in the German language is only to be associated with male nouns, people, or places. This effects cognition pretty heavily according to studies done about the topic. A study was done with a group of Spanish and German speakers (who were also fluent in English), with intentions of finding out whether or not grammatical gender could influence speakers' cognitive processes when they were speaking another language entirely <https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/culture-conscious/201209/masculine-or-feminine-and-why-it-matters>. The results of the study showed that across the board, object gender influenced the participants' judgements when told to describe an object that had differing grammatical genders in Spanish and German. For instance, a "bridge", which is feminine in German, garnered adjectives from the German speakers such as beautiful and elegant; while Spanish speakers referred to it as dangerous and sturdy <https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/culture-conscious/201209/masculine-or-feminine-and-why-it-matters>. This is interesting because in the English language, bridges are never described as elegant-- but rather big or towering, as if we referred to bridges as masculine (or "der"). Since we do not attribute genders to our objects, it seems sort of silly that one article could change our whole stance on, or feelings towards, an object.

  However, it actually makes sense to have grammatical gender for many reasons. For one, utilizing grammatical gender influences memory in a positive way. One of the studies in our textbook "Language in Mind" by Dedre Gentner and Susan Goldin-Meadow states that when Spanish and German speakers were given an item that was given a proper name (like Patrick for an apple), the German speakers were much more likely to remember the name, because in their language an apple is masculine. The Spanish Speakers were more likely to forget the name Patrick, but would have likely remembered it if it was a feminine name like Patricia <Gentner and Goldin-Meadow>. This study further illustrates just how much grammatical gender influences the memory process.

<ref> https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/culture-conscious/201209/masculine-or-feminine-and-why-it-matters

Hi everyone! I read through what your group has so far and it looks awesome! Great lead paragraph and way to go creating a whole new page. A suggestion for you would be to maybe add a brief history section that includes information about the language and its formation that also touches on how the culture may have influenced it. It looks like this is just the start to a lot of information that I'm sure you guys are still working on but everything so far is clear, organized, and interesting. Good job! Lsanterian (talk) 18:22, 16 June 2016 (UTC)

Hi Guys, you are collecting some great information here. The next step is for your group to work together to craft __one__ draft combining all of this, first here, and then eventually moving to the main article. yEvb0 (talk) 02:24, 21 June 2016 (UTC)