This paper offers an examination of morphosyntactic factors that are generally understood to measure grammatical integration—and therefore used to help determine the status of other-language-origin nouns as borrowings or code-switches—through the lens of discourse, semantics, and lexical patterns. A total of 820 lone English-origin nouns surrounded by otherwise Spanish discourse are compared to Spanish and English nouns from the recorded speech of the same bilingual speakers in New Mexico. The semantic domains most open to English-origin nouns include both those traditionally expected, such as technology, and those generally thought to be unborrowable, such as kinship terms. In the case of determiner patterning, lone English-origin nouns’ propensity to occur with indefinite articles or as bare is linked to use in a nonreferential predicating function. Regarding gender, the preference for masculine assignment for lone English-origin nouns is tied to both nonreferentiality and the general patterns found in Spanish. The impact is felt here not from English, but from the conventions of the local community. Among their many functions, these nouns are best suited in this community for naming kin, classifying individuals as belonging to a certain occupation, and creating verbal compounds. It is argued that the morphosyntactic patterns found reflect the community norms, in which English-origin nouns tend to perform certain discourse functions. Systematic quantitative analysis thus reveals the powerful role of discourse referentiality of nominal forms, in tandem with local practices.

Lone English-Origin Nouns in Spanish: The Precedence of Community Norms

The study uses an elicited imitation (EI) task to examine the effect of the native language on the use of the English nongeneric definite article by highly proficient first-language (L1) Spanish an...

The role of the native language in the use of the English nongeneric definite article by L2 learners: A cross-linguistic comparison

This study explores contemporary skilled migration and the brain drain from a bottom-up approach, based on a case study of Mexican scientists and engineers working in the UK. The main interest is to provide a better understanding on how the phenomenon is shaped by the migrant’s personal and professional experience, from Mexico to the UK (‘opening pathways’), and from then on, to explore the extent of collaboration at a distance (from the UK back to Mexico) as a policy alternative to mitigate the negative effects of their departure (‘building bridges’). It is argued that these elements (personal and professional) of the migration experience are crucial for identifying key trends, characteristics, and effects of skilled migration, as well as to consolidate a more robust policy approach to long-distance collaboration. The research is based on an analysis of 36 semi-structured, qualitative interviews with Mexicans graduated in STEM fields, who currently work in academia or the private sector in the UK. A complementary set of four interviews was conducted with Mexican government officials, chosen because of their close relationship to Mexican policies on skilled migration and the brain drain. The empirical findings are organised into three topics: transnationalism, professional experience, and collaboration at a distance. On the one hand, the evidence shows that the migratory experience fosters new subjectivities, where a transnational identity is developed progressively, involving reflexive processes between past and actual life, personal and professional experiences, different rationalities and emotions. On the other hand, under the theme of professional experience, career-related motivations emerge as the main “pull” factor of skilled Mexicans to the UK, triggered in most cases by enrolling in post-graduate programmes at British universities, and followed thereafter by the pursuit of work opportunities. In this process, the interviewees identified important imbalances (or asymmetries) between the development of scientific/professional fields in Mexico and the UK, mainly regarding budgets, infrastructure, networks, R&D activities, triple-helix collaborative schemes, and working conditions. However, despite these complex imbalances, more than half of the emigres were also immersed in relevant collaborative initiatives with Mexico from the UK, which contests, to an extent, the notions of loss within the brain drain debate. It is also notable that such collaborations have taken place because of the personal initiative of the emigres, with no involvement of the Mexican Talent Network (MTN), the main diaspora-engagement initiative of the government to contact its skilled emigres around the world. The thesis also investigates the relevance of these research findings for science policy. Without overlooking the negative implications of skilled migration at a massive scale, it argues that a more balanced exchange between Mexico and the UK can be achieved by building more bridges with the diaspora, through long-distance collaborative initiatives. For this to happen, it is important for policy-makers to understand the relevance of skilled individuals’ choices and preferences, the value of communities of interest, the existing imbalances between central and peripheral countries, the role of legitimacy and politicisation in state-led transnational policies, and the challenges posed by long-distance collaborative initiatives. Finally, some ideas and policy recommendations arising from the research are outlined, in order to better understand –and face— the challenges of skilled migration in future years.

Anibal Vargas-Baron

Papers

The Function of the Definite Article in Spanish

Articulos y ensayos