Gender conflict resolution in Spanish–Basque mixed DPs*

M. Carmen Parafita Couto ^[1] ; Amaia Munarriz ^[2] ; Irantzu Epelde ^[4] ; Margaret Deuchar ^[3] ; Beñat Oyharçabal ^[4]
1. [1] Leiden University
  
  Leiden University
  
  Países Bajos
2. [2] Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
  
  Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
  
  Leioa, España
3. [3] Bangor University
  
  Bangor University
  
  Bangor, Reino Unido
4. [4] CNRS, Centre de Recherche sur la langue basque – IKER, France
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Localización: Bilingualism: Language and cognition, ISSN 1366-7289, Vol. 19, Nº 4, 2016 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Cross-language Effects in Bilingual Production and Comprehension), págs. 834-853
Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
- This study analyzes gender assignment in Spanish–Basque mixed nominal constructions with nouns in Basque (a language that lacks gender) and determiners in Spanish (a language that marks gender) by using a multi-task approach: (i) naturalistic data, (ii) an elicitation task, and (iii) an auditory judgment task. Naturalistic data suggest cross-language effects under which a morphological marker of Basque (-a determiner) is interpreted as a morphophonological expression of gender marking in Spanish. A preference for feminine determiners was observed in the judgment task, which differs from the masculine default trend observed in Spanish–English bilinguals (Jake, Myers-Scotton & Gross, 2002). Our results point to feminine gender as default in Spanish–Basque mixed DPs, indicating that the resources that bilinguals use for gender assignment can be different from those of monolinguals. We argue that this is an outcome of interacting processes which take place at the interfaces (lexicon, phonology, morphosyntax) of both languages, resulting in cross-language effects.