Codeswitching experimental data: grammatical gender in DPs

Abstract

This investigation focuses on the role of Spanish grammatical gender in English-Spanish switched determiner phrases (DPs). In particular, the aim of this study is to determine (i) which directionality is preferred and easier to process (e.g., English determiner switches vs. Spanish determiner switches - e.g., the casa vs. la house/el book-) and (ii) which gender agreement mechanisms are preferred and easier to process in the case of Spanish determiner switches. Regarding the latter, two mechanisms are under consideration: the analogical criterion (AC), i.e., whether there is gender agreement between the Spanish determiner and the Spanish translation equivalent of the English noun ([+AC] switches) (e.g., la-FEM. house-SP FEM. / el-MASC. book-SP MASC.) or the lack of it ([-AC] switches) (e.g., el-MASC. house-SP FEM. / la-FEM. book-SP MASC. ); and the masculine as default, i.e., whether masculine determiners are preferred and easier to process regardless of the gender of the translation equivalent of the English noun (e.g., el-DEFAULT house-SP FEM. / book-SP MASC.).