GENDER ASSIGNMENT TO ENGLISH NEUTRAL NOUNS DENOTING PERSONS BY PASHTO EFL LEARNERS: A LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The mismatch between the gender systems in cross-linguistic interactions is significant in the study of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics with focus on language and gender. Pashto and English differ in their gender systems- possessing grammatical and natural genders respectively. The culture of the native speakers of Pashto is termed as patriarchal (Jamal, 2014); patriarchy exists in their various modes of expressions (Sanauddin, 2015). Pashto nouns are by-default masculine and require overt gender markers to denote feminine gender; While most of the English neutral and generic nouns represent both genders and only biologically feminine beings are lexically marked for femininity. This mismatch is significant in cross-linguistic context of Pashto and English. From the lens of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (1956), this study examines Pashto speakers’ gender assignment tendencies to English gender-neutral nouns denoting persons found in their textbooks. Participants of the study comprised Pashto sophomore L1 EFL learners at Higher Secondary levels in a Pashto-speaking area. Primary data was generated through a data elicitation tasks in which they assigned Pashto adjectives to English nouns referring to persons as classified by Plag (2013). With fewer exceptions, it was found that the intended gender-inclusive English nouns were mostly treated masculine by Pashto speakers. The study found sufficient instances of linguistic sexism in favor of men in the gender assignment tendencies of the participants. Thus, it sheds the role of language structures in guiding the behavior of its speakers as propounded by LRH. Finally, the study invites scholarly attention to other crucial aspects of this gender mismatch in cross-linguistic situations and its possible implications.