Gender assignment to Spanish-English mixed DPs

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 392-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugenia Casielles-Suárez
Keyword(s):  
Oral Discourse ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Spanish Translation ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Determiner Phrases ◽  
Translation Equivalent ◽  
Mixed Language ◽  
Language Text ◽  
Masculine Gender

Abstract Previous studies on gender assignment to Spanish-English mixed Determiner Phrases (DPs) have noticed a tendency to default to the masculine gender (e.g. el store). However, some studies have revealed that other factors such as the gender of the Spanish translation equivalent (analogical criterion) are also relevant, particularly in written discourse (e.g. la conference). Further, it has been hypothesized that feminine-marked mixed DPs in oral discourse, which are viewed as exceptions to the default gender strategy, should be highly restricted to singleton switches (Valdés Kroff 2016). This paper investigates if feminine-marked mixed DPs are restricted to singleton switches in written discourse by analyzing a mixed-language text, which contains both types of switches (singleton and multiword). The results confirm the importance of the analogical criterion in written discourse and show that feminine-marked DPs are not restricted to singleton switches, and that the analogical criterion is relevant to both singleton and multiword switches.

Las keys versus el key

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Montes-Alcala ◽  
Naomi Lapidus Shin
Keyword(s):  
Strong Predictor ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Spanish Translation ◽  
Feminine Gender ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Translation Equivalent ◽  
Language Mixing

Previous research on language mixing has revealed similarities in written and oral production with respect to syntactic and pragmatic patterns (e.g. Callahan 2004). In this study we find, however, that the two modes of expression diverge in loanword gender assignment. English-origin NPs inserted into written Spanish discourse (e.g. un baggie) were analyzed and compared to English-origin NPs in oral Spanish discourse. Results showed that loanwords are assigned feminine gender at significantly higher rates in written than in oral data. Also, our study shows that the reasons for assigning feminine gender are different for written and oral production. Phonological factors appeared to be influential in the oral, but not written, data. The ‘analogical criterion’, according to which the gender of the Spanish translation equivalent determines the gender assigned to the loanword, e.g. una letter (una carta), was a strong predictor of feminine gender in the written data, but had a weaker effect in the oral data.

scholarly journals Investigating Gender Assignment Strategies in Mixed Purepecha–Spanish Nominal Constructions

Languages ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Bellamy ◽  
M. Parafita Couto ◽  
Hans Stadthagen-Gonzalez
Keyword(s):  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Task Type ◽  
Comparable Data ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Feminine Gender ◽  
Translation Equivalent ◽  
Masculine Gender

Purepecha has no grammatical gender, whereas Spanish has a binary masculine–feminine system. In this paper we investigate how early sequential Purepecha–Spanish bilinguals assign gender to Purepecha nouns inserted into an otherwise Spanish utterance, using a director-matcher production task and an online forced-choice acceptability judgement task. The results of the production task indicate a strong preference for masculine gender, irrespective of the gender of the noun’s translation equivalent, the so-called “masculine default” option. Participants in the comprehension task were influenced by the orthography of the Purepecha noun in the -a ending condition, leading them to assign feminine gender agreement to nouns that are masculine in Spanish, but preferred the masculine default strategy again in the -i/-u ending condition. The absence of the “analogical criterion” in both tasks contrasts with the results of some previous studies, underlining the need for more comparable data in terms of task type. Our results also highlight how task type can influence the choices speakers make, in this context, in terms of the choice of grammatical gender agreement strategy. Task type should therefore be carefully controlled in future studies.

Gender assignment strategies and L1 effects in the elicited production of mixed Spanish-Basque DPs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amaia Munarriz-Ibarrola ◽  
Maria-José Ezeizabarrena ◽  
Varun DC Arrazola ◽  
M. Carmen Parafita Couto
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analyses ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Determiner Phrases ◽  
Languages In Contact ◽  
Determining Factor ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract This paper investigates the strategies involved in gender assignment in Spanish-Basque mixed Determiner Phrases (DPs) with a gendered Spanish determiner (el M /la F) and a Basque ungendered noun. Previous studies on Spanish-Basque mixed DPs have revealed conflicting results regarding the determining factor affecting gender assignment, namely, phonological ending vs. analogical gender. We designed a forced-switch elicitation task in order to elicit mixed DPs with a Spanish determiner and a Basque noun (controlled for both phonological vs. analogical cues). Thirty highly proficient Spanish-Basque bilinguals with different profiles and socio­linguistic backgrounds participated in the study. Three cues were significant in the selection of the Spanish M/F determiner: the analogical gender and two phonological cues, the word ending and the root ending of the Basque noun. Further statistical analyses revealed participants’ L1 as a strong factor in the variability attested: bilinguals with Spanish as (one of) their L1(s) rely predominantly on the analogical criterion, whereas speakers with only Basque as L1 follow mainly the phonological criterion. Overall, this study provides an explanation for the previous conflicting results and highlights the fact that bilinguals may use different strategies depending on their bilingual profile and the morpho-phonological properties of the languages in contact.

scholarly journals The representation of gender in the mind of Spanish-English bilinguals: Insights from code-switched Adjectival Predicates

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Rachel Klassen ◽  
Juana M. Liceras
Keyword(s):  
Judgment Task ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Spanish Translation ◽  
Translation Equivalent ◽  
The Mind ◽  
L1 English ◽  
Processing Difficulty ◽  
Acceptability Judgment ◽  
The Way

This study examines bilinguals’ gender use strategies in code-switched agreement (i.e. the moon is bonita) and concord (i.e. la moon) structures. Thirty-five L1 Spanish-L2 English adult bilinguals and 43 L1 English-L2 Spanish adults with an intermediate (N=18) or advanced (N=25) level of proficiency in Spanish completed an acceptability judgment task in which they rated code-switched Adjectival Predicates and DPs. The results show that only the L1 Spanish-L2 English bilinguals prefer the Adj (in the case of agreement) or the D (in the case of concord) to be marked for the gender of the Spanish translation equivalent of the English N, but that all groups rate agreement structures higher than concord structures. Both of these findings corroborate previous work on intrasentential code-switching, however, this is the first study to offer an account for the contrast in processing difficulty between agreement and concord structures. We argue that this difference can be explained in terms of the way in which the features are valued in agreement and in concord. Under the double-feature valuation mechanism (Liceras et al., 2008) in agreement both features are valued in a single direction, while in concord the features are valued in two different directions. It is this unidirectionality of the feature valuation mechanism in agreement that makes code-switched agreement structures such as Adjectival Predicates easier to process.

HMM based TTS for mixed language text

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiwei Shuang ◽  
Shiyin Kang ◽  
Yong Qin ◽  
Lirong Dai ◽  
Lianhong Cai
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Language ◽  
Language Text

scholarly journals Patterns of gender assignment in the Jamtlandic variety of Scandinavian

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-125
Author(s):  
Briana Van Epps ◽  
Gerd Carling
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Logistic Regression Analysis ◽  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Word List ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Multinomial Logistic Regression Analysis ◽  
Biological Sex ◽  
Language Variety ◽  
Masculine Gender

AbstractIn this study, we present an analysis of gender assignment tendencies in Jamtlandic, a language variety of Sweden, using a word list of 1029 items obtained from fieldwork. Most research on gender assignment in the Scandinavian languages focuses on the standard languages (Steinmetz 1985; Källström 1996; Trosterud 2001, 2006) and Norwegian dialects (Enger 2011, Kvinlaug 2011, Enger & Corbett 2012). However, gender assignment principles for Swedish dialects have not previously been researched. We find generalizations based on semantic, morphological, and phonological principles. Some of the principles apply more consistently than others, some ‘win’ in competition with other principles; a multinomial logistic regression analysis provides a statistical foundation for evaluating the principles. The strongest tendencies are those based on biological sex, plural inflection, derivational suffixes, and some phonological sequences. Weaker tendencies include non-core semantic tendencies and other phonological sequences. Gender assignment in modern loanwords differs from the overall material, with a larger proportion of nouns assigned masculine gender.

Inter-lingual homograph letter detection in mixed language text: Persistent missing-letter effects and the effect of language switching

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
SETH N. GREENBERG ◽  
JEAN SAINT-AUBIN
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Context ◽  
Function Word ◽  
Letter Detection ◽  
Language Switching ◽  
Mixed Language ◽  
Language Text

Heretofore, we learned that bilinguals better detected letters in inter-lingual homographs when the context language ascribed a content role to the homograph as compared to a function role. In previous work the target homographs appeared in passages that were of a single language. The present work investigated whether this letter detection pattern would hold if both languages were activated by intermixing languages in a passage. Results suggested that despite intermixing of languages that would excite competing function and content meanings, local sentence context was sufficient to engender a content over function word advantage for inter-lingual homographs that was reminiscent of that obtained with homogenous text.

How to manage patients in English–Spanish translation

Target ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian A. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Study ◽  
Medical Research ◽  
Contextual Analysis ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Analysis Model ◽  
Spanish Translation ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Language Text

This paper describes the application of a target-oriented contrastive analysis model to an extensive corpus of medical research articles. The analysis focuses on the Methods section and a subset of lexical items representing persons viewed as the object of clinical study. Quantitative contrastive analysis revealed statistically significant differences between the translations from English and the independently created Spanish texts in all the thematic, syntactic and lexical variables analysed. Qualitative contextual analysis showed that four basic criteria for thematic position and a series of associated translation strategies are capable of correcting the excesses and deficits observed, thus producing a more natural and acceptable target language text.

scholarly journals Male and Female Students’ Discourse Competence at Kalamansig National High School

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 260-274
Author(s):  
Reynaldo B. Aranego ◽  
Bai Donna S. Aliman ◽  
Zaida K. Ulangkaya
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Correlation Method ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Oral Discourse ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Competence Level ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Discourse Competence ◽  
The Relationship

The study aimed to determine the relationship between the oral and written discourse competence of the male and female students of Kalamansig National High School. Specifically, it sought to determine the level of oral and written discourse competence of male and female students in terms of informative, persuasive, and argumentative speeches; to find out if there is significant difference between male and female students’ written and oral discourse competence level in the three parameters; and to find out if there is a significant difference between the oral and written discourse competence in general when classified according to gender. This study used the descriptive-correlation method. The researcher utilized the purposive sampling in determining the seventy (70) Grade 10 performing students of Kalamansig National High School as respondents of the study. The teacher-made communicative written and speaking tests were used as instruments to gauge the male and female student’s written and oral discourse competence. Based on the findings, it was concluded that both male and female students oral and written discourse competence are good. Both group of students need equal attention from the teachers to enhance their speaking and writing skills.

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