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.

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The Function of the Definite Article in Spanish

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

Redefinition of a syntactic categoryin modern spanish as a method of facilitating a computer-assisted textual analysis

El artículo definido con nombre propio de persona en el español hablado culto contemporáneo

English) The agreement between nouns and their respective articles are of upmost importance within the Spanish language. Although some L2 Spanish learners may believe that noun gender is not an important aspect of the Spanish language, it has shown to be very vital in the overall construction of a sentence, in the form of the adjectives and other grammatical tools being used (Vargas-Barn, 1952). There are many aspects that contribute to the difficulty of acquiring the gender of a Spanish noun for learners of Spanish as a second language. This includes characteristics of the learners such as their age, their sex, their exposure to the Spanish language, their exposure to other foreign languages, etc (Sagarra & Herschensohn, 2011, Lindsey & Gerken, 2012). In addition, some nouns’ gender is harder to acquire than others', depending on their endings, their meaning, and their semantics (Alarcón, 2009, Clegg, 2011). However, little is known about the learners’ attitudes towards noun gender acquisition and its relationship to its acquisition. This study aims to present the potential relationship of learners’ attitudes towards the importance of noun gender and their ability to correctly identify the gender of nouns. Also, the study will explore the relationship between perceived difficulty of gender, as part as the attitude towards it, by learners, and its relationship to gender acquisition. In order to do so, a survey will be given to two university Spanish classes with a questionnaire asking their age range, Spanish exposure, etc., as well as their perceived importance of learning how to properly identify the correct genders of nouns. After this short questionnaire there will be a series of questions in order to test their current ability at determining noun gender. With the results of this study, teachers will be able to utilize the information and be able to instruct their students on the importance of noun gender within the Spanish language, and hopefully increase the knowledge ADQUISICIÓN DEL GÉNERO DE SUSTANTIVOS 3

The Function of the Definite Article in Spanish

Citations

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

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

Redefinition of a syntactic categoryin modern spanish as a method of facilitating a computer-assisted textual analysis

El artículo definido con nombre propio de persona en el español hablado culto contemporáneo

¿Femenina o masculino? La adquisición del género de sustantivos en español

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