Optimal categorisation: the origin and nature of gender from a psycholinguistic perspective

语境：性别的存在本身就令人困惑：为什么在俄语中“肘部”是阳性的，而“膝盖”是中性的，而“骨头”是阴性的？为什么一些说荷兰语的人区分三种性别，而另一些人只区分两种？它给语言学习者带来挑战，也让语言学家和心理学家兴奋不已。语法性别的起源是语言学中的一个主要问题，而不同语言的使用者如何对实体进行分类的相关问题是心理学中的一个关键问题。我们试图从经验上确定性别是否来自特殊的分类词（分类词，类似于英语的“纸”和“纸”）。“一包纸”)，而这些分类词反过来又从名词发展而来。为了使我们的解释完全令人信服，我们还必须确定语言是如何以及为什么放弃有用的、有意义的分类系统，而采用一种僵化的、显然没有动机的性别系统。这些不同的系统是如何影响认知的？性别系统比分类系统更优吗？非最优系统的额外认知成本会导致语言变化吗？我们将结合类型学调查和心理语言学实验来解决这些研究问题。目的：为了明确地证明性别的起源，我们必须跟踪一个全新的性别系统的兴起，从开始到一个全面运作的系统。我们需要在一组密切相关的语言中做到这一点，这样我们就可以使用语言之间的差异作为随时间发展的代理。我们需要足够多的每种语言的使用者，以使我们能够从心理语言学上调查他们的分类系统。值得注意的是，我们已经确定了一个满足所有这些要求的环境-瓦努阿图和新喀里多尼亚的六种语言在其所有格分类中表现出这种语法发展的有趣迹象。我们对性别如何出现的研究将为我们提供洞察人类对世界上实体进行分类的方式，以及这种分类如何融入语言的运作中。我们研究的这两个方面提供了一个难得的机会来研究大脑是如何编纂人类经验的。我们开发了一种创新的方法来研究像性别这样的语法类别是如何存在的。通过将心理语言学实验带到自然实验室，我们可以测试一些假设，否则这些假设是遥不可及的。这种方法是及时的，因为关键语言都是高度濒危的，而进行这项研究的机会恰恰需要我们研究团队确定的环境类型。为了研究我们对名词分类系统中性别出现的假设，以及这些不同的系统如何影响认知，我们测试了一套实验。这包括一系列技术（自由列表、卡片分类、小故事和故事板、眼球追踪和分类训练），以获取说话者的判断和反应时间，从而评估每个系统的认知负荷。在六种关键语言上进行实验将使我们能够绘制单个分类器的语义域（意义范围）。我们还将为每种语言确定所声称的分类器是否仍在对所有者与实体之间的关系进行分类，或者它们是否已成为性别标记。应用：这种原始的方法将比项目的寿命更长，为未来的研究提供了丰富的机会。实验工具包将为在其他领域（性别制度处于后期阶段的领域）进行实验提供模板。这些发现将为更普遍的分类发展的新假设提供基础。不同的语言社区将受益于详细介绍所发现的不同分类器和性别系统的使用的识字材料，这将有助于在这个棘手的语言领域开展白话文教育。

Context:The very existence of gender is a source of bafflement: why in Russian is 'elbow' masculine, while 'knee' is neuter and 'bone' is feminine? Why do some Dutch speakers distinguish three genders, and others only two? It challenges language learners and excites linguists and psychologists no less. The origin of grammatical gender is a major question in linguistics, and the related issue of how entities are categorised by speakers of different languages is a key question in psychology. We seek to establish empirically whether gender emerged from special classificatory words (classifiers, similar to English 'sheet of paper' vs. 'pack of paper'), while these classifiers in turn developed from nouns. To make our explanation fully convincing, we must also establish how and why languages relinquish a useful, meaningful classificatory system, and adopt a rigid, apparently unmotivated gender system. How do these varying systems impact cognition? Is a gender system more optimal than a classifier system? Do the additional cognitive costs of less optimal systems lead to language change? We shall address these research questions by combining typological enquiry and psycholinguistic experimentation.Aims:To demonstrate the origin of gender unambiguously, we must track the rise of a completely new gender system, from inception to a fully functioning system. We need to do this in a group of closely related languages, so that we can use differences between the languages as a proxy for development through time. And we need sufficient speakers of each language to enable us to investigate their systems of classification psycholinguistically. Remarkably, we have identified an environment that meets all these requirements - a group of six languages in Vanuatu and New Caledonia that exhibit intriguing signs of this grammatical development in their possessive classifiers.Our research on how gender emerges will provide insight into the way in which humans categorise entities in the world, and how this categorisation is incorporated into the workings of language. These two aspects of our research provide a rare opportunity to investigate how the mind codifies human experience. We have developed an innovative method for investigating how grammatical categories like gender come to exist. By bringing psycholinguistic experiments to a natural laboratory, we can test hypotheses that would otherwise be out of reach. This approach is timely, given that the key languages are all highly endangered and the chance to conduct this research requires exactly the type of setting identified by our research team.In order to investigate our hypotheses on the emergence of gender from noun classifier systems and how these differing systems affect cognition, we have tested a suite of experiments. These involve a range of techniques (free-listing, card-sorting, vignettes and storyboards, eye-tracking and category training) to access speakers' judgements and reaction times in order to assess the cognitive load of each system. Conducting the experiments on six key languages will allow us to map the semantic domain (the range of meaning) of the individual classifiers. We shall also establish for each language whether the purported classifiers still function to classify the relation between a possessor and an entity, or whether they have become gender markers.Applications:This original methodology will outlive the project's lifespan, providing a wealth of opportunities for future research. The experiment toolkit will provide a template for conducting experiments in other areas (where gender systems are at later stages). The findings will provide the foundations for new hypotheses about the development of categorisation more generally. The different language communities will benefit from literacy materials detailing the use of the different classifier and gender systems found, which will aid vernacular education efforts for this tricky area of language.