Linguistic Gender Marking and Categorization

Gender markers provide syntactic structure and a categorization schema to language. Brand name gender is a function of both formal, structural aspects of the brand name and semantic properties of the brand's product class. In the formal gender system of Spanish, consistent formal gender marking enhances brand recall, whereas semantic product associations drive brand evaluation. In the semantic gender system of English, formal cues determine initial brand name gender, but congruent semantic associations between brand name and product category drive improved brand evaluations and brand recall. Three studies across two languages demonstrate that gender's role as a categorization tool underlies these effects. (c) 2005 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..