scholarly journals A syntactic approach to gender assignment in Spanish–English bilingual speech

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abel Cruz Flores
Keyword(s):  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Biological Sex ◽  
Theoretical Account ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Syntactic Approach ◽  
Gender Features ◽  
Late Insertion ◽  
English Noun

This paper examines gender assignment in Spanish–English bilingual speech and develops a theoretical account of gender features in the bilingual grammar on the basis of the linguistic properties that correlate with gender assignment. An analysis of 76 sociolinguistic interviews from an autonomous bilingual community in Southern Arizona, U.S. (Carvalho 2012) reveals three key findings in terms of gender assignment in Spanish Det–English Noun switched DPs (i.e., el industry ‘the.M.SG’): (i) biological sex categorically determines gender assignment with human-denoting nouns; (ii) frequent inanimate nouns that have Spanish feminine counterparts are feminine in bilingual speech; (iii) masculine is a prevailing default gender. Following Kramer’s (2015) proposal of gender features, it is argued that an interpretable [+/-FEM] feature encodes biological sex in the grammar whereby a category-neutral √ combines with a n hosting an interpretable [+/-FEM] feature and triggers feminine (i.e., la coach ‘the.F.SG’) or masculine (i.e., el stepson ‘the.M.SG’) agreement. Inanimate feminine nouns are associated with an uninterpretable [+FEM] feature as the result of bilingualism (i.e., la school ‘the.F.SG’), and masculine default gender is viewed as an effect of Preminger’ (2009) failed Agree. On the basis of these findings, this paper rejects the distinct-lexicons view of the bilingual language faculty (MacSwan 2000 et seq.) and attempts to substantiate a single-lexicon approach compatible with a realizational (Late Insertion) view of the morphosyntactic model (Halle and Marantz 1993).

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.

Gender Assignment Strategies Among Simultaneous Spanish/English Bilingual Children from Miami, Florida

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-280
Author(s):  
Osmer Balam ◽  
Usha Lakshmanan ◽  
María del Carmen Parafita Couto
Keyword(s):  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Second Graders ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Instructional Programs ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
English Child ◽  
Bilingual School

Abstract We examined gender assignment patterns in the speech of Spanish/English bilingual children, paying particular attention to the influence of three gender assignment strategies (i.e., analogical gender, masculine default gender, phonological gender) that have been proposed to constrain the gender assignment process in Spanish/English bilingual speech. Our analysis was based on monolingual Spanish nominals (n = 1774), which served as a comparative baseline, and Spanish/English mixed nominal constructions (n = 220) extracted from oral narratives produced by 40 child bilinguals of different grade levels (second graders vs. fifth graders) and instructional programs (English immersion vs. two-way bilingual) from Miami Dade, Florida. The narratives, available in the CHILDES database (MacWhinney, Brian. 2000. The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk, 3rd edn. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), were collected by Pearson, Barbara Z. 2002. Narrative competence among monolingual and bilingual school children in Miami. In D. Kimbrough Oller & Rebecca E. Eilers (eds.), Language and literacy in bilingual children, 135–174. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Results revealed that in Spanish nominal constructions, children across both instructional programs and grade levels evinced native-like acquisition of grammatical gender. In mixed nominals, children overwhelmingly assigned the masculine gender to English nouns. Notably, irrespective of schooling background, simultaneous Spanish/English bilingual children used the masculine default gender strategy when assigning gender to English nouns with feminine translation equivalents. This suggests that from age seven, simultaneous Spanish/English child bilingual acquisition of grammatical gender is characterized by a predisposition towards the employment of the masculine default gender strategy in bilingual speech.

Bilingualism as a window into the language faculty: The acquisition of objects in French-speaking children in bilingual and monolingual contexts

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANA T. PÉREZ-LEROUX ◽  
MIHAELA PIRVULESCU ◽  
YVES ROBERGE
Keyword(s):  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Language Faculty ◽  
Lexical Development ◽  
Bilingual Child ◽  
Bilingual Lexicon ◽  
Null Objects ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Syntactic Development ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Direct Objects

Where do the two languages of the bilingual child interact? The literature has debated whether bilingual children have delays in the acquisition of direct objects. The variety of methods and languages involved have prevented clear conclusions. In a transitivity-based approach, null objects are a default structural possibility, present in all languages. Since the computation of lexical and syntactic transitivity depends on lexical acquisition, we propose a default retention hypothesis, predicting that bilingual children retain default structures for aspects of syntactic development specifically linked to lexical development (such as objects). Children acquiring French (aged 3;0–4;2, N = 34) in a monolingual context and a French/English bilingual context participated in a study eliciting optional and obligatory direct objects. The results show significant differences between the rates of omissions in the two groups for both types of objects. We consider two models of how the bilingual lexicon may determine the timetable of development of transitivity.

Grammatical gender selection and phrasal word order in child heritage Spanish: A feature re-assembly approach

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALEJANDRO CUZA ◽  
ROCÍO PÉREZ-TATTAM
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
The United States ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
English Bilingual

The present study examines the development of grammatical gender assignment, agreement, and noun-adjective word order in child heritage Spanish among thirty-two Spanish–English bilingual children born and raised in the United States. A picture-naming task revealed significant overextension of the masculine form and high levels of ungrammatical word order strings. There were no significant differences by age regarding gender concord or noun-adjective word order. We argue that the differences found can be accounted for in terms of a re-assembly of gender features leading to both morphological and syntactic variability. This approach allows for subsequent morphosyntactic shifts during early childhood depending on patterns of language use, and conceptualizes heritage language variation along the lines of current linguistic theorizing regarding the role of innate linguistic principles and language experience in language development.

Roman Scholars on Grammatical Gender and Biological Sex

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Corbeill
Keyword(s):  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Scholarly Activity ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Biological Sex ◽  
The World ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Greek Tradition ◽  
And Gender

This chapter considers how the Romans imagined that the earliest Latin speakers employed grammatical gender. From as early as Varro, scholars and grammarians occupied themselves with cataloguing the peculiarities of grammatical gender—instances, for example, when gender assignment seems counterintuitive, or where one noun can vary between masculine, feminine, and neuter. This scholarly activity, with little extant precedent in Greek tradition, finds Latin grammarians consistently placing great importance upon the identification of grammatical gender with biological sex. The chapter explains this fascination with “sex and gender” by analyzing the reasons posited for the fluid gender of nouns as well as the commonest practitioners of grammatical gender bending (in particular Vergil). It shows that by dividing the world into discrete sexual categories, Latin vocabulary works to encourage the pervasive heterosexualization of Roman culture.

Crosslinguistic influence on headedness of novel English compounds

2016 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Onysko
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Noun Compounds ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence ◽  
Meaning Interpretation ◽  
English Noun

AbstractThis article explores the hypothesis that bilingual knowledge of different compounding patterns can influence the interpretation of a set of novel English noun-noun compounds. The focus of the study is on bilingual speakers who are fluent in two typologically diverse languages: te reo Māori (postmodifying) and English (premodifying). A comparison of bilingual and monolingual participant groups indicates that Māori-English bilingual speakers more frequently rely on the Māori structure of left-headed compounding in their meaning interpretation of English compounds. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of the cognitive process of transfer and additional means of meaning association in bilingual speakers.

scholarly journals Spanish Grammatical Gender Interference in Papiamentu

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge R. Valdés Kroff ◽  
Frederieke Rooijakkers ◽  
M. Carmen Parafita Couto
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Gender Agreement ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Heritage Speaker ◽  
Syntactic Differences ◽  
Gender Features

The aim of this study is to determine whether Spanish-like gender agreement causes interference in speakers of Papiamentu (a Western Romance-lexified creole language) who also speak Spanish. Papiamentu and Spanish are highly cognate languages in terms of their lexicons. However, Papiamentu lacks grammatical gender assignment and agreement, leading to cognate words with major morpho-syntactic differences. A total of 41 participants with different linguistic profiles (Papiamentu-dominant, Dutch-dominant, Spanish-dominant, and Spanish heritage speaker-Papiamentu bilinguals) listened to 82 Papiamentu sentences, of which 40 contained a Spanish-like gender-agreeing element on the Determiner, Adjective, or Determiner + Adjective and with half of the experimental items marked with overtly masculine (i.e., -o) or feminine (i.e., -a) gender morphology. Participants performed a forced-choice acceptability task and were asked to repeat each sentence. Results showed that Spanish-dominant speakers experienced the greatest interference of Spanish gender features in Papiamentu. This suggests that in cases where speakers must suppress gender in their second language (L2), this is not easy to do. This is especially the case in highly cognate languages that differ in whether they realize gender features.

Gender assignment: Monolingual constraints contribute to a bilingual outcome

2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692110534
Author(s):  
Sonya Trawick ◽  
Trevor Bero
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
Goodness Of Fit ◽  
Logistic Regression Model ◽  
Operating Characteristic ◽  
Relative Impact ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Curve Method

Aims and objectives: This study explores the well-researched topic of gender assignment to English nouns in Spanish discourse through a usage-based framework. The goal is to elucidate the relative impact of both previously studied and novel constraints on the variable application of feminine determiners. Methodology: A variationist analysis of English nouns surrounded by Spanish discourse in the spontaneous speech of bilinguals. Data and analysis: Data come from the New Mexico Spanish–English Bilingual Corpus. Tokens ( N = 707) were coded for independent variables and submitted to a logistic regression. The goodness of fit was determined via the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve method. Findings: All independent variables were selected as significant by the logistic regression model. Based on factor weight ranges, the hierarchy of constraints is the following, from the most to the least impactful: Analogical Gender, Phonological Shape, Syntactic Role, and Determiner Definiteness. These results suggest that bilinguals utilize a variety of constraints in gender assignment, as opposed to a single default strategy. Originality: While previous studies have tested and found similar results for constraints such as analogical gender and phonological shape, none have offered a unified analysis explaining findings from a usage-based approach. The originality and utility of this approach is most apparent in the discussions of prototypicality and schematicity. Significance/implications: A corpus-based approach and usage-based theory is shown to bring new insight to a topic of interest in many other linguistic sub-fields. The discussion reinterprets previous conclusions about gender assignment using a framework not proposed in previous research, despite similar overall results.

An Introductory Examination of Speech Disfluencies in Spanish–English Bilingual Children Who Do and Do Not Stutter During Narratives

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-141
Author(s):  
Cristina Rincon ◽  
Kia Noelle Johnson ◽  
Courtney Byrd
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Criteria ◽  
Preliminary Data ◽  
Diagnostic Information ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Developmental Stuttering ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the frequency and type of speech disfluencies (stuttering-like and nonstuttering-like) in bilingual Spanish–English (SE) children who stutter (CWS) to SE children who do not stutter (CWNS) during narrative samples elicited in Spanish and English to provide further diagnostic information for this population and preliminary data toward an expansion of this study. Method Participants included six bilingual SE children (three CWS, three CWNS) ranging in age from 5 years to 7;5 (years;months) and recruited from the surrounding Houston, Texas area. Participants provided a narrative sample in English and Spanish. The frequency of speech disfluencies was tabulated, and mean length of utterance was measured for each sample. Results Results indicate that both talker groups exceed the diagnostic criteria typically used for developmental stuttering. Regardless of the language being spoken, CWS participants had a frequency of stuttering-like speech disfluencies that met or exceeded the diagnostic criteria for developmental stuttering that is based on monolingual English speakers. The CWNS participants varied in meeting the criteria depending on the language being spoken, with one of the three CWNS exceeding the criteria in both languages and one exceeding the criteria for percentage of stuttering-like speech disfluencies in one language. Conclusion Findings from this study contribute to the development of more appropriate diagnostic criteria for bilingual SE-speaking children to aid in the reduction of misdiagnoses of stuttering in this population.

Spanish-English Bilingual Word Norms With New Examination of Comprehensive Cognate Measures

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Martin ◽  
Jeanette Altarriba ◽  
Matthew J. Pagano
Keyword(s):  
English Bilingual ◽  
Word Norms
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