Gender and gender agreement in bilingual native and non-native grammars: A view from child and adult functional–lexical mixings

Liceras, Juana M.; Fuertes, Raquel Fernández; Perales, Susana Borraz; Pérez-Tattam, Rocío; Spradlin, K. Todd

doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2007.05.006

Cited by 160 publications

(204 citation statements)

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“…While the L2 Spanish groups do not show a significant preference for the analogical criterion, they also don't display a clear tendency towards the use of masculine as a default strategy that has previously been attested (Liceras et al, 2008;Valenzuela et al, 2012;Llama et al, 2011). In order to further investigate possible gender use strategies in the L2 Spanish groups, we examined the mean ratings for the switched Adjectival Predicates and DPs that did not follow the analogical criterion (Figure 2).…”

Section: Gender Use Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…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 the unidirectionality of the feature valuation mechanism in agreement that makes code-switched agreement structures such as Adjectival Predicates easier to process.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Lo que defendemos aquí es que esta diferencia se puede explicar a partir de la forma en que los rasgos se cotejan en estas dos estructuras. Según el mecanismo del doble cotejo de rasgos (Liceras et al, 2008), en la concordancia de predicado adjetivo los dos rasgos se valúan en una sola dirección mientras que en la concordancia de determinante y sustantivo se valúan en dos direcciones diferentes. Es precisamente la unidireccionalidad del mecanismo de valuación que caracteriza a la concordancia de predicado adjetivo lo que hace que esas estructuras de alternancia de código sean más fáciles de procesar.…”

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

Klassen

Liceras

2017

Borealis

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ABSTRACT. This study examines bilinguals' gender use strategies in code-switched agreement (e.g. the moon es bonita) and concord (e.g. la moon) structures. Thirtyfive 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 Determiner Phrases. 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 the unidirectionality of the feature valuation mechanism in agreement that makes code-switched agreement structures such as Adjectival Predicates easier to process.Keywords: Spanish-English bilinguals, gender in code-switching, double-feature valuation mechanism, agreement, concord, directionality in feature checking, analogical criterion RESUMEN: En este trabajo se examinan las estrategias de uso de género de los bilingües en estructuras con alternancia de código de concordancia de predicado adjetivo (e.g. the moon es bonita) y en estructuras de acuerdo de determinante y sustantivo (e.g. la moon). Un grupo de 35 adultos bilingües con L1 español y L2 inglés y 42 adultos con L1 inglés y L2 español, con español de nivel intermedio (N=18) y de nivel avanzado (N=25), completaron una tarea de juicios de aceptabilidad en la que tenían que asignar un valor a Predicados Adjetivos y a Sintagmas Determinantes con alternancia de código. Los resultados muestran que solamente los bilingües con L1 español prefieren que el Adj (en el caso de la concordancia de predicados adjetivos) o el Det (en el caso del acuerdo entre determinante y sustantivo) esté marcado con el género de la palabra española con la que se traduce el sustantivo inglés, mientras que todos los grupos dan una puntuación mayor a las estructuras de concordancia de predicado adjetivo que a las de concordancia de determinante y sustantivo. Si bien ambos resultados confirman los que se han obtenido en estudios previos sobre alternancia de código dentro de la oración, este es el primer trabajo que trata de explicar el contraste que se produce a la hora de pro-RACHEL KLASSEN & JUANA M. LICERAS 78 cesar las estructuras de concordancia de predicado adjetivo y las de acuerdo entre determinante y...

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Section: Gender Use Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 66%

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confidence: 99%

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

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Liceras

2017

Borealis

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“…These include the motivation for switching between languages (MyersScotton 1993a, Auer 1998), classification of switches (Muysken 2000), psycholinguistic perspectives on code-switching (Green 1998, Treffers-Daller 1998, Toribio 2001, the grammatical basis of code-switching as well as constraints that apply to each pair of mixed languages (Poplack 1980, Bentahila and Davies 1983, Myers-Scotton 1993b, MacSwan 2000, van Gelderen and MacSwan 2008, bilingual children's code-switching (Treffers-Daller 1998, Hoeksema 1990, Carnie 2010, Cantone & Mül-ler 2008, Liceras et al 2008) and code-switching in e-mails (Hinrichs 2006). Many studies have also been carried out on pairs of languages, but very few exist on codeswitching involving more than two languages (Ogechi 2002, Kyuchukov 2002) and, still less are studies on written code-switching especially on virtual speech communities (Montes-Alcala, 2007;Lamidi, 2013).…”

Section: Previous Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Syntax of Multi-Word Expressions in Yorulish Code-Mixing

Lamidi

2017

Ghana J. Ling.

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Scholars have discussed Yorulish (Yorùbá-English) code-switching/mixing from the perspectives of sociolinguistics, contact linguistics and pragmatics, among others; but the syntax-semantics aspect has not enjoyed much scholarly scrutiny, if any. Multi-word expressions (MWEs) are characterised by noncompositionality as they comprise two or more words, which have a unique meaning not traceable to any of the combined words. This study examines the syntactic behaviour of MWEs in Yorulish code-switched grammar, with an eye to the meaning before and after code-switching/mixing. The adopted theoretical framework is a combination of Myers-Scotton's Matrix Language Frame theory and Chomsky's Transformational Generative Grammar. Data were purposively sampled from standard dictionaries and textbooks on English and Yorùbá languages, and code-switched/mixed with words from the alternate language. The MWEs selected are idioms (from English and Yorùbá); phrasal verbs, phrasal-prepositional verbs and prepositional verbs (from English); and splitting verbs and serial verb constructions (from Yorùbá). The study suggests that switching is allowed when components of MWEs are relatively free as in English prepositional verbs, but barred when they are fixed as in Yorùbá splitting verbs and idioms. Nevertheless, apart from idioms where both English and Yorùbá substrates resist switching, the other Yorùbá MWEs are more impervious to switching than do those of English origin, which suggests that Yorùbá is the base language.

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“…Insertion is governed by the Subset Principle (Halle, 1997;Embick & Noyer, 2007: 298), which holds that a phonological exponent is inserted if all or a subset of the features specified in that position match the exponent's features. Such a model has been applied successfully to a range of other cases of language mixing (Liceras, Fernández Fuertes, Perales, Pérez-Tattam, & Spradlin, 2008;Pierantozzi, 2012, Grimstad;Lohndal & Åfarli, 2014), whereby underlying abstract feature matrices may be realized by elements from both languages. The crucial part of the present paper is that this mechanism can be extended to modality.…”

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confidence: 99%

The role of underspecification in grammar

Lohndal

2016

LAB

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In order to understand the human ability for language, we cannot simply focus on the idealized monolingual speaker or signer (Chomsky, 1965). Rather, as much work in second language acquisition has recognized, it is also necessary to study instances where a person masters two or more languages at different levels of proficiency. Today's globalized world with increased migration will further increase the number of multilingual speakers. However, another piece of the puzzle involves understanding the grammatical system of bilingual speakers who use both a sign language and a spoken language, or put differently, bimodal bilingualism. This latter type of bilingualism is clearly yet another possible human I-language (in the sense of Chomsky, 1986), meaning that our theories of the human language faculty also need to accommodate facts from this group of speakers. It is this population that is the focus of the current keynote paper by Lillo-Martin, Müller de Quadros and Chen Pichler (2016, henceforth LMC).Theoretically, there are two main options when faced with a type of speakers that has yet to be adequately described and understood. One can either devise a special theory which only applies to that particular type of speakers, or one can opt for what is typically called a null theory: One theory of the human language faculty irrespective of the number of languages a given individual masters. Occam's Razor clearly suggests a preference for the latter type of theory, presuming that descriptive adequacy can be maintained.In their paper, LMC opt for a null theory. They show how a specific type of theory, namely Distributed Morphology, can be extended to also account for bimodal bilingualism.

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Gender and gender agreement in bilingual native and non-native grammars: A view from child and adult functional–lexical mixings

Cited by 160 publications

References 24 publications

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

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

The Syntax of Multi-Word Expressions in Yorulish Code-Mixing

The role of underspecification in grammar

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