Gender strategies in the perception and production of mixed nominal constructions by New Mexico Spanish-English bilinguals

  1. Cisneros, Mark 1
  2. Eva Rodríguez-González 1
  3. Bellamy, Kate 2
  4. M. Carmen Parafita Couto 23
  1. 1 University of New Mexico
    info

    University of New Mexico

    Albuquerque, Estados Unidos

    ROR https://ror.org/05fs6jp91

  2. 2 Leiden University
    info

    Leiden University

    Leiden, Holanda

    ROR https://ror.org/027bh9e22

  3. 3 Universidade de Vigo
    info

    Universidade de Vigo

    Vigo, España

    ROR https://ror.org/05rdf8595

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Revista:
Isogloss: Open Journal of Romance Linguistics

ISSN: 2385-4138

Ano de publicación: 2023

Título do exemplar: Romance grammars: context and contact

Volume: 9

Volume: 2

Tipo: Artigo

DOI: 10.5565/REV/ISOGLOSS.253 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso aberto editor

Outras publicacións en: Isogloss: Open Journal of Romance Linguistics

Resumo

This study investigated gender assignment strategies in mixed noun phrases containing a Spanish determiner and an English noun among Spanish-English bilinguals (n = 38) in New Mexico (U.S.A.). Previous research has reported different gender assignment strategies based on a preference for a default determiner, the gender of the translation equivalent, or shape-based cues from the other language. The present study consisted of (i) a language background questionnaire, (ii) a two-alternative forced-choice judgment task, and (iii) two director-matcher tasks: a forced-switch task and a spontaneous card game. The results of the judgment task indicate that participants preferred the gender of the translation equivalent, i.e., la window ‘the.FEM window’ following the gender of the Spanish noun la ventana. Results from the production tasks also show that participants produced both gender congruent and incongruent mixed NPs, with Late English bilinguals producing more congruent mixed NPs, similar to the translation equivalent strategy found in the judgment task. These findings differ from those found in naturalistic speech in other New Mexican communities, which display a preference for a masculine default strategy. We suggest that the nature of participants’ bilingual profile and the community norms (urban setting, heterogeneous and diverse language contact profiles) may play a key role in the observed code-switching patterns in mixed noun phrases.

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