Codeswitching experimental data: grammatical gender in copula constructions with codeswitching

Abstract

This investigation focuses on the role of Spanish grammatical gender in English-Spanish switched copulative constructions with an adjective as subject complement (e.g., la casa is beautiful / the house es bonita). In particular, the aim of this study is to determine (i) which directionality is preferred and easier to process (i.e., switches in which Spanish provides the subject determiner phrase (DP) and English provides the adjective or structures in which the subject DP is in English while the adjective is in Spanish -e.g., la casa is beautiful vs. the house es bonita-); and (ii) which gender agreement mechanisms are preferred and easier to process in copulative switches in which Spanish provides the adjective. Regarding the latter, two mechanisms are under consideration: the analogical criterion (AC), i.e., whether there is gender agreement between the Spanish adjective and the translation of the equivalent of the English DP subject ([+AC] switches; e.g., the house-SP FEM. es bonita-FEM.) or the lack of the analogical criterion ([-AC] switches; e.g., the house-SP FEM. es bonito-MASC./ the book-SP MASC. es bonita-FEM.); and the masculine as default, i.e., whether masculine adjectives are preferred and easier to process regardless of the gender of the translation equivalent of the English DP (e.g., the book-SP MASC. es bonito-DEFAULT and the house-SP FEM. es bonito-DEFAULT).