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Part of
Code-switching – Experimental Answers to Theoretical Questions: In honor of Kay González-Vilbazo
Edited by Luis López
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 19] 2018
► pp. 39–62

The familiar and the strange

Gender assignment in Spanish/English mixed DPs

| The University of Illinois at Chicago

This study examines gender assignment in Spanish/English mixed DPs. In these DPs, heritage speakers of Spanish have the choice of using the feminine or masculine determiner with an English noun (e.g., (1) la table or (2) el table). However, there is no gender agreement between the Spanish determiner and English noun. According to Liceras et al. (2008), this is solved by using the masculine determiner, el; it is not specified for gender (Harris, 1991). Other studies (Jake et al., 2002) have shown that heritage speakers do use the feminine determiner in mixed DPs such as (1). I argue that the feminine determiner is used with English nouns that are feminine in Spanish and are part of the familial domain.

Keywords: gender, Spanish/English, determiner phrase, heritage speakers
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Gender in Spanish
    • 2.2Default gender in Spanish
    • 2.3Gender in code-switched DPs
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Experimental stimuli and task
    • 3.3Procedure
    • 3.4Analysis
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 16 November 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.19.03del
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