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 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.

scholarly journals Gender Assignment in Six North Scandinavian Languages: Patterns of Variation and Change

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-315
Author(s):  
Briana Van Epps ◽  
Gerd Carling ◽  
Yair Sapir
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Word Frequency ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Feminine Gender ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Old Swedish ◽  
Gender System ◽  
Gender Change

This study addresses gender assignment in six North Scandinavian varieties with a three-gender system: Old Norse, Norwegian (Nynorsk), Old Swedish, Nysvenska, Jamtlandic, and Elfdalian. Focusing on gender variation and change, we investigate the role of various factors in gender change. Using the contemporary Swedish varieties Jamtlandic and Elfdalian as a basis, we compare gender assignment in other North Scandinavian languages, tracing the evolution back to Old Norse. The data consist of 1,300 concepts from all six languages coded for cognacy, gender, and morphological and semantic variation. Our statistical analysis shows that the most important factors in gender change are the Old Norse weak/strong inflection, Old Norse gender, animate/inanimate distinction, word frequency, and loan status. From Old Norse to modern languages, phonological assignment principles tend to weaken, due to the general loss of word-final endings. Feminine words are more susceptible to changing gender, and the tendency to lose the feminine is noticeable even in the varieties in our study upholding the three-gender system. Further, frequency is significantly correlated with unstable gender. In semantics, only the animate/inanimate distinction signifi-cantly predicts gender assignment and stability. In general, our study confirms the decay of the feminine gender in the Scandinavian branch of Germanic.

scholarly journals Semantic Categories and Gender Assignment in Contact Spanish: Type of Code-Switching and its Relevance to Linguistic Outcomes

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osmer Balam
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Production Data ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
The Status ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Semantic Domains

The present study examines two aspects of determiner phrases (dps) that have been previously investigated in Spanish/English code-switching; namely, the openness of semantic domains to non-native nouns and gender assignment in monolingual versus code-switched speech. The quantitative analysis of naturalistic, oral production data from 62 native speakers of Northern Belizean Spanish revealed both similarities and notable differences vis-à-vis previous findings for varieties of Spanish/English code-switching in theu.s. Hispanophone context. Semantic domains that favoured non-native nouns in Spanish/Englishdps included academia, technology, work/money-related terms, abstract concepts, linguistics/language terms and everyday items. In relation to gender assignation, assignment patterns in monolingualdps were canonical whereas an overwhelming preference for the masculine default gender was attested in mixeddps. Biological gender was not found to be deterministic in switcheddps. The analysis highlights the important role that type of code-switching has on contact outcomes in bi/multilingual communities, as speech patterns are reflective of the status and resourcefulness that code-switching is afforded at a societal and idiolectal level.

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.

scholarly journals Phonological vs. natural gender cues in the acquisition of German by simultaneous and sequential bilinguals (German–Russian)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Tanja KUPISCH ◽  
Natalia MITROFANOVA ◽  
Marit WESTERGAARD
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Feminine Gender ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Syntactic Cues ◽  
Phonological Rules

Abstract We investigate German–Russian bilingual children's sensitivity to formal and semantic cues when assigning gender to nouns in German. Across languages, young children have been shown to primarily rely on phonological cues, whereas sensitivity to semantic and syntactic cues increases with age. With its semi-transparent gender assignment system, where both formal and semantic cues are psycho linguistically relevant, German has weak phonological cues compared to other languages, and children have been argued to acquire semantic and phonological rules in tandem. German–Russian bilingual children face the challenge of acquiring two different gender assignment systems simultaneously. We tested 45 bilingual children (ages 4–10 years) and monolingual controls. Results show that the children are clearly sensitive to phonological cues, while semantic cues play a minor role. However, monolingual and bilingual children have different defaulting strategies, with monolinguals defaulting to neuter and bilinguals to feminine gender.

Hatt or si? Neuter and feminine gender assignment in reference to female persons in Luxembourgish

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-601
Author(s):  
Sara Martin
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Time Analysis ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Feminine Gender ◽  
Audio Recordings

Abstract In Luxembourgish, feminine as well as neuter gender can be assigned to female persons. Here, female first names are morphologically treated as neuter and therefore trigger neuter gender on their targets (e.g. definite article, personal pronoun). Last names referring to women, however, are feminine and take feminine targets respectively. While the use of neuter and feminine in prototypical and invariable reference contexts are well-known, morphological conflicts often arise regarding more complex name types (e.g. female first name + last name) leading to different degrees of variation between both genders. Building especially upon previous findings by Döhmer (2016), the present contribution offers a first extensive empirical analysis on the use of neuter and feminine personal pronouns considering different female referents as well as familiarity, the referent’s and the speaker’s, as decisive (socio-pragmatical) factors for gender assignment. The results are based on elicited data retrieved from an online survey and audio recordings collected by means of the Luxembourgish language app Schnëssen and allow a quantification of the phenomenon going beyond previous contributions and descriptions in reference grammars. The apparent-time analysis, carried out in order to identify potential tendencies in language change, suggests a preference for neuter pronominalization for younger speakers of Luxembourgish in variable reference contexts.

scholarly journals Gender in Unilingual and Mixed Speech of Spanish Heritage Speakers in The Netherlands

Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Ivo Boers ◽  
Bo Sterken ◽  
Brechje van Osch ◽  
M. Carmen Parafita Couto ◽  
Janet Grijzenhout ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Age Of Onset ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Translation Equivalent ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish ◽  
Switching Mode ◽  
Spanish Heritage Speakers

This study examines heritage speakers of Spanish in The Netherlands regarding their production of gender in both their languages (Spanish and Dutch) as well as their gender assignment strategies in code-switched constructions. A director-matcher task was used to elicit unilingual and mixed speech from 21 participants (aged 8 to 52, mean = 17). The nominal domain consisting of a determiner, noun, and adjective was targeted in three modes: (i) Unilingual Spanish mode, (ii) unilingual Dutch mode, and (iii) code-switched mode in both directions (Dutch to Spanish and Spanish to Dutch). The production of gender in both monolingual modes was deviant from the respective monolingual norms, especially in Dutch, the dominant language of the society. In the code-switching mode, evidence was found for the gender default strategy (common in Dutch, masculine in Spanish), the analogical gender strategy (i.e., the preference to assign the gender of the translation equivalent) as well as two thus far unattested strategies involving a combination of a default gender and the use of a non-prototypical word order. External factors such as age of onset of bilingualism, amount of exposure and use of both languages had an effect on both gender accuracy in the monolingual modes and assignment strategies in the code-switching modes.

scholarly journals Grammatical Gender: Acquisition, Attrition, and Change

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-121
Author(s):  
Terje Lohndal ◽  
Marit Westergaard
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Formal Analysis ◽  
First Language ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Feminine Gender ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Combined Data

This paper discusses grammatical gender in Norwegian by bringing together data from first language acquisition, Norwegian heritage language, and dialect change. In all these contexts, gender is often claimed to be a vulnerable category, arguably due to the relative non-transparency of gender assignment. Furthermore, the feminine gender is in the process of being lost in many Norwegian dialects, as feminine agreement forms (for example, the indefinite article) are merged with the masculine. The definite suffix, in contrast, is quite stable, as it is acquired early and does not undergo attrition/change. We argue that the combined data provide evidence that gender and declension class are separate phenomena, and we outline a possible formal analysis to account for the findings.*

scholarly journals S Doris in däm wisse Fätze.

2019 ◽  
Vol 98 (5) ◽  
pp. 137-156
Author(s):  
Gerda Baumgartner
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Social Relationship ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Feminine Gender ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
The Feminine

In various Swiss German dialects, the feminine gender is not the sole possibility when referring to women. Under certain circumstances, the article of female first names can also be neuter, e. g. s Doris. The gender assignment of names is determined by linguistic variables such as morphology or semantics, but also by social factors like age and social relationship. Neuter names have been shown to indicate social relations and encode certain concepts of gender roles in society. Based on data from an extensive online survey and fieldwork conducted in different places of Switzerland, the affective function of the neuter gender in the use of female names is explained. The focus lies on the definite article.

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