Gender assignment strategies in Spanish-English mixed noun phrases

Abstract

This study explores how Spanish-English bilinguals in California assign grammatical gender when code-switching between a Spanish determiner and an English noun. In bilingual speech, these moments of cross-linguistic contact offer a window into how speakers navigate competing grammatical systems. Using data from a semi-spontaneous picture description task, the analysis draws on 649 mixed noun phrase tokens to examine whether bilinguals rely on analogical gender, semantic cues, phonological endings, number, or determiner type when choosing between masculine and feminine determiners. While masculine determiners were strongly favored overall, the results show that analogical gender plays a meaningful role—feminine determiners were more likely to appear when the English noun had a grammatically feminine Spanish translation. Other factors did not reach statistical significance. These findings support the view that gender assignment in code-switching reflects structural sensitivity to the grammatical systems of both languages, as well as variability shaped by individual bilingual experience.