Cross-linguistic differences in gender congruency effects: Evidence from meta-analyses

It has been proposed that the order in which words are prepared for production depends on speaker’s language. When producing translation equivalent of small cat, speakers German or Dutch select gender-marked determiner at a relatively early stage production. Speakers French Italian postpone encoding adjective until phonological form noun is available. Hence, even though produced same (e.g., die kleine Katze German, le petit chat French), they not planned and might require different amounts advanced planning prior to onset. This distinction between late selection languages was account observation Germanic Slavic languages, but Romance slower name pictures context distractor word gender. Meta-analyses conducted provide first direct test this cross-linguistic difference prediction hypothesis. They confirm existence gender congruency effect German/Slavic its absence when target presented simultaneously. do allow confirming hypothesis latter similar emerges presentation delayed. Overall, these analyses show evidence available date sufficient reject as an explanation difference. We highlight specific directions future research.