ON THE REPRESENTATION OF GENDER IN THE MIND OF THE BILINGUAL: THE VIEW FROM THE INTERPRETATION AND
PRODUCTION OF CONCORD AND AGREEMENT CODE-SWITCHED STRUCTURES
Rachel Klassen1, Juana M. Liceras1, María Landa-Buil2
University of Ottawa1, University of the West Indies2
Code-switched structures provide insight into the representation of gender in the mind of the bilingual because
they make it possible to determine whether bilinguals whose dominant language does not classify Nouns
according to grammatical gender do, in fact, assign these Nouns the gender of their ‘translation equivalents’ in
the gender-marked language. Previous research (Liceras et al. 2008) has shown that Spanish-dominant EnglishSpanish bilinguals significantly prefer gender-matching (as in 1) over non-matching (as in 2) switched concord
structures, namely they abide by the so-called ‘analogical criterion’ (Otheguy & Lapidus 2003).
(1a) La [theF] table [mesaF] [FF matching]
/ (1b) El [theM] book [libroM] [MM matching]
(2a) El [theM] table [mesaF] [MF non-matching] / (2b) La [theF] book [libroM] [FM non-matching]
This same preference has been for both children (Radford et al. 2007) and adults (Liceras 2013) in
spontaneous production. However, English-dominant English-Spanish bilinguals do not demonstrate this
preference.
The ‘analogical criterion’ has also been shown to occur (Valenzuela et al. 2012; Liceras 2013) in switched
agreement structures (3 versus 4).
(3a) The chair[la sillaF] es bonita[is beautifulF] [FF] / (3b) The book[el libroM] es bonito[is beautifulM] [MM]
(4a) The silla[la sillaF] es bonito[is beautifulM] [FM] / (4b) The book[el libroM] es bonita[is beautifulF] [MF]
However, while Spanish- but not English-dominant bilinguals abide by the ‘analogical criterion’ in the
case of concord structures, in Valenzuela et al. (2012) English-dominant bilinguals (specifically Heritage Spanish
speakers) are significantly closer to Spanish-dominant bilinguals in the case of the agreement structures than in
the case of concord structures. These authors suggest these results may be accounted for by differences in
processing but do not provide further explanation.
In this paper, the first question we address is whether a double-feature valuation analysis of the two
structures (Fernández Fuertes et al. 2011; Liceras 2013) can account for the representational and processing
differences for English-dominant bilinguals when interpreting and producing code-switched concord and
agreement structures. In other words, we would like to propose that the double-feature valuation mechanisms
involved in concord and agreement structures are different in two respects: directionality and complexity, as
shown in (5) and (6).
(5)
DP
D
N
Lathe-fem
house (as Spanish casa)
[uGen: fem.+ ()]
[Gen-fem. + u()]
STEP 1
DP internal
(6)
TP
DP
T’
T
The house
[Gen: fem. + ()]
es
AdjP
pequeña
[uGen-fem. + u()]
STEP 2
DP - AdjP
With regards to directionality, concord is more problematic because, as shown in (5), the valuation
mechanism goes in two different directions (the unvalued gender feature on the Determiner is valued, to the right,
on the valued Gender feature of the Noun and the unvalued agreement () feature on the Noun is valued, to the
left, on the corresponding valued agreement () feature of the Determiner). In the case of agreement, the two
unvalued features of the Adj are valued, to the left, on the DP which inherits the features of the Spanish equivalent,
as shown in (6). This enhances the complexity of the agreement process because the DP subsumes the valuation
mechanism that takes place in the Spanish DP between the features of the Determiner and the features of the
Noun.
Based on this, we hypothesize that, if directionality plays a role in the interpretation and processing of
these structures, agreement structures will be easier to interpret and process than concord structures. However,
the complexity involved in the agreement process may hinder production and, if this is the case, agreement
structures will be more difficult to produce than concord structures.
To test these hypotheses, 43 English-dominant Spanish-English adult bilinguals performed an
acceptability judgment task in which they rated switched concord (7a) and agreement (8a) structures and 81
English-dominant Spanish-English bilinguals performed a written production task where they completed switched
concord (7b) and agreement (8b) structures by producing either the Spanish Determiner (concord) or a gendermarked Spanish Adjective (agreement). Both tasks included pictures to provide and to allow for the use of colour
Adjectives in the production task.
—Concord:
(7a) Where is the milk? - La leche está en el
the milk is
(7b) Hay
glass. [MM matching]
in the (vaso-masc.)
nubes en _____ sky. response: el[masc.] [MM matching] / la[fem.] [FM non-matching]
There are clouds in
(cielo-masc.)
—Agreement:
(8a) Why do you like the castle? – The castle es preciosa. [MF non-matching]
(castillo-masc.)
beautiful[fem.]
(8b) The table es ___________. response: negra [FF matching] / negro [FM non-matching]
La mesa[fem.] is
black[fem.]
black[masc.]
In the acceptability task, participants showed a significant preference for agreement structures over
concord ones (p=.004) and in the production task accuracy (as defined by the ‘analogical criterion’) was
significantly higher for concord structures than agreement ones (p<.001).
These differing results for the interpretation and production of switched concord and agreement
constructions suggest that different characteristics of these structures play the prominent role in processing and
in production. In processing the directionality of the double-feature valuation is more important than the
complexity, as illustrated in the preference for agreement over concord. On the other hand, in production
complexity has a stronger influence than directionality and thus the ‘analogical criterion’ is applied significantly
more consistently in concord than in agreement structures.
SELECTED REFERENCES
• Liceras, J.M., Liceras, J., R. Fernández Fuertes, S. Perales, R. Pérez-Tattam and K. T. Spradlin. (2008). “Gender
and gender agreement in bilingual native and non-native grammars: A view from child and adult functionallexical mixings.” Lingua 118: 827–51.
• Otheguy, R. and N. Lapidus. (2003). An adaptive approach to noun gender in New York contact Spanish. In R.
Cameron, L. López and R. Núñez-Cedeño (eds.), A Romance perspective on language knowledge and use.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Radford, A., T. Kupisch, R. Köppe and G. Azzaro (2007). Concord, convergence and accommodation in
bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 10 (3): 239–256.