Phonological cues influence sex decisions about novel names.
Investigations of first names in English have found that male and female names are distinguished by different phonological characteristics. This paper reports on findings that suggest native speakers of English rely on those same cues when making judgments about the sex of names with which they are unfamiliar. When presented with 40 novel, i.e., "invented" names, 25 university undergraduates judged one-syllable names and consonant-final names as male names; however, they judged two-syllable names and vowel-final names as female names. These findings indicate that certain phonological features are strong enough predictors of sex that they can be used to designate sex even with names never before encountered.
Wright
Saundra K
SK
Department of English, California State University, Chico, CA 95929-0830, USA. skwright@csuchico.edu
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003463:Cues; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009275:Names; D010700:Phonetics; D011932:Reading; D013067:Speech Perception