Determiner-noun code-switching in Spanish heritage speakers

• SARAH FAIRCHILD ^[1] ; JANET G. VAN HELL ^[2]
  1. [1] University of Delaware

     University of Delaware

     Estados Unidos

     
  2. [2] Pennsylvania State University

     Pennsylvania State University

     Borough of State College, Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Bilingualism: Language and cognition, ISSN 1366-7289, Vol. 20, Nº 1, 2017, págs. 150-161
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Dialnet Métricas: 3 Citas
• Resumen

  • Code-switching is prevalent in bilingual speech, and follows specific syntactic constraints. Several theories have been proposed to explain these constraints, and in this paper we focus on the Minimalist Program and the Matrix Language Frame model. Using a determiner-noun picture naming paradigm, we tested the ability of these theories to explain determiner-noun code-switches in Spanish–English bilinguals. The Minimalist Program predicts that speakers will use the determiner from the gendered language, whereas the Matrix Language Frame model predicts that the determiner will come from the language that dominates the syntactic structure in a code-switched utterance. We observed that the bilinguals had slowest naming times and decreased accuracy in Spanish determiner - English noun conditions (‘el dog’), and that adding a Matrix Language did not modulate this pattern. Although our results do not align with either theory, we conclude that they can be explained by the WEAVER++ model of speech production.