Bilingual compound verbs (BCVs) are constructions where an inflected light verb from one language co-occurs with an inserted lexical verb from another language, which provides the semantic content,...Show moreBilingual compound verbs (BCVs) are constructions where an inflected light verb from one language co-occurs with an inserted lexical verb from another language, which provides the semantic content, e.g., Spanish/English hacer cook “to cook”: Spanish/Maya hacer loch “to hug”. Although previous studies, i.a., Balam (2015); Balam et al. (2020); Michalski (2017), have analyzed the (morpho)syntactic structure of hacer “to do” BCVs in Spanish/English code-switching and Maya/Spanish code-switching respectively, there is no study that offers a semantic analysis of these innovative constructions in these bilingual varieties. Endeavoring to fill this gap, the present study examines the semantic use of BCVs in Orange Walk, Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico; two linguistically and sociohistorically connected yet distinct communities where Spanish hacer BCVs have been attested (e.g., Balam, 2015; Michalski, 2017). More specifically, we analyzed which semantic domains are open to other language lexical verbs in these two bi/multilingual communities that markedly differ in terms of their frequency of use of BCVs. 903 BCVs from Balam ́s (2016a) corpus of oral production data from Northern Belize and 237 BCVs from Michalski ́s (2021) Yucatan Spanish Twitter corpus were coded using our categorization model, consisting of 3 mains semantic categories, 28 mutually exclusive categories and 5 references to identity. Results show that there are significant similarities and differences regarding the openness of semantic domains to other language lexical verbs in the two communities. In terms of similarities, subcategories “C1 School, Education, Learning-Related” and “B2 Friendships, Social Communication” evinced high levels of openness (> 7%) across the two communities. In terms of differences, the BCVs from Yucatan encapsulated a relatively high degree of cultural and linguistic references (47%) that are idiosyncratic to the Yucatecan/Mayan community. We therefore posit that Backus ́s (2001) concept of specificity and Treffers-Daller ́s (2023) listedness to be the main motivations for the insertion of Maya verbs in hacer BCVs. The Belize results demonstrate that many different semantic contexts exhibited openness to English verb insertions, reflecting the multicultural and multilingual identity of the Northern Belizean society. The high degree of openness found in “C1 School, Education, Learning-Related” (20%) and “C2 Work-Related”(13%) can be attributed to the more frequent (official) use of English in educational and professional settings, possibly resulting in higher levels of “entrenchment” in the speakers´minds (Backus, 2014).Show less
Previous studies (Jensen, 1989) (Börestam Uhlmann, 1994) (Zeevaert, 2004) (Gooskens et al., 2018) have attempted to establish intelligibility between cognate or sister languages - languages...Show morePrevious studies (Jensen, 1989) (Börestam Uhlmann, 1994) (Zeevaert, 2004) (Gooskens et al., 2018) have attempted to establish intelligibility between cognate or sister languages - languages descending from a common ancestral language. But what happens to intelligibility when those languages are not only related but are a direct continuation such as descendant languages or a creoles? This thesis attempts to establish the intelligibility of Papiamentu as an Iberian-based creole language among native speakers of Spanish and Portuguese. By means of a cloze test (Aitken, 1977) performed online and distributed through social media, participants were asked to look at three written texts and listen to three audio fragments, each with certain words missing for which the participants had to select replacements through multiple choice. Participants were sorted into different categories in order to establish whether the order of performed tasks had any impact on the end results. Additionally, participants were asked to self-assess their performance at the end of each task. Results showed that Spanish speakers generally performed better at the reading task, while Portuguese speaking participants scored better during the listening task. Overall, the Portuguese speakers had the highest scores. The order in which tasks were performed also impacted the scores, with those who performed the listening task first scoring higher than those who performed the tasks in the reversed order.Show less
Objectives: This thesis is a replication study of previous work on Spanish-English code-switching (Stadthagen-González, Parafita Couto, Párraga and Damian, 2017) and focuses on comparative...Show moreObjectives: This thesis is a replication study of previous work on Spanish-English code-switching (Stadthagen-González, Parafita Couto, Párraga and Damian, 2017) and focuses on comparative judgments, with regard to adjective-noun order in Papiamento-Dutch code-switched utterances. It examines the predictions of adjective-noun order derived from two different theoretical models: the Minimalist Program (Cantone & MacSwan, 2009) and the Matrix Language Framework (Myers-Scotton, 2002). In Dutch, adjectives are prenominal, like ‘zwarte hond’ (‘black dog’), whereas in Papiamento, adjectives are mostly post-nominal, as in ‘kachó pretu’ (literally: ‘dog black’). The Matrix Language Framework (MLF) posits that the word order in code-switched sentences must follow the word order of the Matrix Language (determined by finite verb morphology) (Myers-Scotton, 2002). However, according to Cantone and MacSwan (2009) within the Minimalist Program (MP), the word order depends on the adjective’s language. Methodology and analysis: To evaluate these predictions, 10 monolingual base sentences were modified into 40 code-switched items, consistent with the MP, the MLF, with both or none of the theoretical models. Data was gathered by a 2-Alternative Forced Choice (2AFC) task, concentrating explicitly on switches in adjective-noun word order and was analysed using Thurstone’s Law of Comparative Judgment (Thurstone, 1927). Conclusions: Results of the thirty-seven bilinguals that participated in this experiment, indicate that both the language of the verb as well as the language of the adjective are used to determine word order in code-switched sentences and these results do not differ much from those of the similar study regarding Spanish-English bilinguals (Stadthagen-González et.al., 2017). Evidence showed that neither of the two theoretical models can fully account for the acceptability of adjective-noun switches. Implications: A suggestion would be to combine the insights of both the Minimalist Program and the Matrix Language Framework to be able to understand grammaticality in code-switching, as already proposed by Stadthagen-González et.al., (2017).Show less
This thesis focuses on gender-assignment strategies in Spanish-English mixed nominal constructions in which nouns come from English and determiners come from Spanish. Spanish has gender-agreement...Show moreThis thesis focuses on gender-assignment strategies in Spanish-English mixed nominal constructions in which nouns come from English and determiners come from Spanish. Spanish has gender-agreement for determiners (el/los/uno/estos for masculine, la/las/una/estas for feminine gender), as well as also other types of agreement, for instance with adjectives. English does not possess gender-agreement in the least. This conflict site where grammars of the two languages have conflicting rules, is therefore interesting to examine. Previous studies report that bilingual speakers use different strategies when assigning gender-agreement in code-switched Determiner Phrases (DPs) where the determiner comes from a gender-carrying language and the noun from a language without gender. Valdés Kroff, in his study (2016) found evidence in favour of the default strategy proposed earlier by Poplack, Pausada & Sankoff (1982). He examined mixed DPs in the Bangor Miami Corpus. He found that Spanish determiners were almost all masculine gendered and used as a default. A second strategy proposed by Liceras et al. (2008) suggests that translation equivalent of the noun will determine the gender of the Spanish determiner in Spanish-English bilingual speech. A third possible strategy, found by Parafita Couto et al. (2016), is that the gender-assignment in Basque-Spanish language pair is determined by a phonological cue. This means that nouns ending on-a, mostly trigger the Spanish feminine la determiner in mixed DPs. The aim of the present study is to determine which of these strategies are mostly used in each community and to look if, and how, these communities differ. The bilingual speech production of 104 participants were examined through a Map Task, across four Spanish-English communities: Pennsylvania State University (PSU) (USA), San Juan, (Puerto Rico, USA), El Paso (Texas, USA) and Granada (Spain)). Results showed, that in bilingual DPs, Spanish masculine determiner occurred more frequently as a default strategy, than the analogical strategy in both San Juan and PSU. Interestingly, in Granada and El Paso, both the default and the translation equivalent strategies are almost equally used. In conclusion, these bilingual communities with the same language pair, have different strategies for gender-assignment in bilingual DPs. As suggested by Valdés Kroff (2016), this can be explained by specific community norms that result in linguistic variation across communities.Show less
