[pt] Esta tese diz respeito à identificação do sistema de gênero, focalizando a atribuição de um valor particular ao traço de gênero de nomes [- animado] por crianças. A hipótese de trabalho assumida é de que o valor do traço de gênero do Nome é identificado a partir da concordância no DP, com base em informação morfo-fonológica nos elementos da Categoria D. A perspectiva teórica adotada visa a conciliar um tratamento psicolingüístico para a aquisição da linguagem com uma teoria lingüística. O tipo de operação de concordância que viabilizaria a transferência do valor do gênero de D para N é considerado e 4 experimentos são relatados, nos quais são avaliadas a sensibilidade de crianças aos itens da Categoria D e sua habilidade de processar concordância de gênero. Os resultados são compatíveis com a hipótese e sugerem acesso precoce à categoria funcional D. / [en] This thesis is concerned with the identification of the gender system by focusing on the ascription of a particular value to the gender feature of [-animate] nouns by children. The working hypothesis assumed here is that the value of the gender feature of the Noun is identified due to DP agreement on the basis of morpho-phonological information provided by the elements of the D Category. The theoretical approach adopted here aims at reconciling a procedural account to language acquisition with a theory of language. The sort of agreement operation that would allow gender value transferring from D to N is considered and 4 experiments are reported, which aimed at evaluating children`s sensibility to the elements of the D category and their ability to process gender agreement. The results provide support to the hypothesis and suggest early access to the functional category D.

This thesis investigates the correlation between the grammatical gender of generic nouns denoting animals and the perceived biological sex of their referents. Based upon an approach by Imai et al. (2014), a reaction task experiment was conducted in which participants had to make inferences about the biological sex of specific animals. Four languages with differing grammatical gender systems were tested: Spanish, French, German and English. The experiment was conducted with native speakers in their respective languages. The results showed that Spanish, French and German speakers were influenced by grammatical gender when completing the task, while results in the English test group remained unaffected by this factor. In the Spanish and French sample there were several test conditions where gender effects were significant, whereas for the German sample significant effects could only be found in one test condition. Furthermore, in the French and German test groups, significant gender effects were found only when the target words were accompanied by gender-marked definite articles. For Spanish, effects were significant even when the stimuli were presented in the plural form without articles. These results imply that structural features, such as gender marking articles and the transparency of the Spanish gender system, seem to facilitate the projection of sex-specific properties onto grammatical gender. This study can be taken as weak support for linguistic relativity.

No description available.

If most scholars tend to agree that the native language of a speaker does influence the way they will understand the reality around them, the question becomes ambiguous when it comes to bilingual speakers’ cognition. How is their reality affected by the combination of their languages? This study aimed at exploring this question under the angle of grammatical gender. Adult simultaneous early bilingualsin French and Swedish were asked, in an innovative experiment, to match a culturally neutral item to a voice. In a second experiment, the same participants were asked to match a culturally loaded item to a voice. In both experiments, items were carefully chosen according to their grammatical gender. Results indicate that grammatical gender was not a predictor of voice assignment. However, the perceived cultural stereotypes of the items used in the second experiment appeared to be a robust predictor of voice assignment. Findings suggest thus that grammatical gender does not affect how simultaneous early bilingualism French and Swedish would conceptualise artifacts, but cultural gender would.

<p dir="ltr">The present study examined the acquisition of Spanish grammatical gender in 22 bilingual children (aged 5;0 to 13;5 years; Med=9;4 years; STD=2.3) who were born and raised in the United States and acquired Spanish as heritage speakers—that is, they learned Spanish, the minority language, in a home setting (Valdes, 2001). Each of the child participants had at least one parent who was born and raised in a Spanish-speaking country before immigrating to the U.S. post-puberty. Eleven (11) of the adults/parents, (aged 18 to 60 years, Med=42; STD=8.5)—all native speakers of Spanish—participated with their children, providing a control group for comparison purposes. Specifically, the study examined whether child heritage speakers of Spanish have linguistic intuition that enables them to<i> </i>distinguish between grammatical and ungrammatical constructs of gender expression in Spanish heard in ordinary speech (Chomsky, 1965). An Acceptability Judgment Task (AJT) presented each of the participants with both grammatical and ungrammatical versions of Spanish sentences in four grammatical conditions: (a) determiner-noun (DET-NOUN) assignment, (b) determiner-adjective (DET-ADJ) agreement, (c) noun-adjective (NOUN-ADJ) agreement, and (d) determiner phrase (DP) directionality (Cuza & Perez Tattam, 2016). Results showed that the participants—both children and adults—correctly found the grammatical examples to be acceptable. The adult participants consistently rejected the ungrammatical examples while many of the child participants had difficulties recognizing the ungrammatical examples as unacceptable. Statistical analysis found that the external factors of language dominance and language experience were significant in relation to the ability to distinguish the ungrammatical items, suggesting that the children who were dominant in Spanish and had more experience with the language were also more likely to recognize the ungrammatical constructs of the language. This result is in keeping with the Bilingual Alignments Approach, which focuses on the correlation of expected responses with the external factors of language dominance and language experience (Sánchez, 2019).</p>

Diese Dissertation untersucht Transfereffekte aus der Muttersprache (L1) in der Verarbeitung von grammatischem Genus in der Zweitsprache (L2) bei Spätbilingualen. „Spätbilinguale“ lernen eine Zweitsprache nach der Kindheit, im Gegensatz zu „Frühbilingualen“. Forschungsergebnisse zeigten, dass der L2-Erwerb nach der Kindheit weniger erfolgreich ist als während der Kindheit und dass einige Strukturen, wie z.B. grammatisches Genus, besonders stark von Alterseffekten beeinträchtigt sind. Eine Erklärung für L2-Verarbeitungsschwierigkeiten ist negativer L1-Transfer. Deshalb konzentriert sich diese Dissertation auf L1-Transfereffekte in der Genusverarbeitung. Transfer tritt auf, weil alle Sprachen eines Sprechers aktiviert sind und im Wettbewerb um Selektion stehen. Ein Ziel dieser Dissertation ist, zu beschreiben, welche Faktoren Genustransfer beeinflussen. Für die L2-Genusverarbeitung wurde gezeigt, dass verschiedene Faktoren die Leistung beeinflussen, z.B. die L2-Kompetenz der Probanden, Aufgabenanforderungen und die syntaktische Distanz der übereinstimmenden Elemente. Genustransfer wird durch Faktoren wie Charakteristiken des L1-Genussystems, Transparenz des L2-Genussystems und Formähnlichkeit der Nomen in L1 und L2 beeinflusst. Außerdem könnte Genustransfer von der L2-Kompetenz und der Komplexität des L2-Genussystems abhängen. Es wurden ein behaviorales und ein EKP-Experiment durchgeführt. Genustransfer wurde über verschiedene Sprachpaare mit Genussystemen von unterschiedlicher Komplexität und Transparenz hinweg untersucht. Die experimentellen Aufgaben unterschieden sich bezüglich der Aufgabenanforderungen und syntaktische Strukturen mit unterschiedlicher struktureller Distanz wurden verwendet. Der Leistungsstand der Probanden wurde manipuliert. Anhand meiner Ergebnisse konnte ich identifizieren, welche (Kombination von) Faktoren Genustransfer erhöhen oder verringern und Genustransfer als das Ergebnis eines komplexen Wechselspiels von Faktoren beschreiben. / This thesis investigates first language (L1) transfer effects in second language (L2) grammatical gender processing of late bilinguals. “Late bilinguals” learn an L2 after childhood, in contrast to “early bilinguals”. Research has shown that L2 acquisition after childhood is usually less successful than during childhood and that some aspects of a language are more affected by age than others. One of the structures especially affected is grammatical gender. A possible explanation for L2 processing difficulties in late bilinguals is negative transfer from the L1. Therefore, this thesis focuses on L1 transfer effects in L2 gender processing of late bilinguals. Transfer arises because all languages of a speaker are activated and compete for selection. One aim of this thesis is to describe which (combination of) factors influence L1 gender transfer. Regarding L2 gender processing in general, different factors have been shown to affect performance, e.g., language proficiency of the subjects, task demands, and syntactic distance of the agreeing elements. Gender transfer is affected by factors such as characteristics of the L1 gender system, transparency of the L2 gender system, and form similarities of nouns in L1 and L2 (cognates vs. noncognates). Besides this, gender transfer might be mediated by L2 proficiency and the complexity of the L2 gender system. In this thesis, a behavioral and an ERP experiment were conducted. Gender transfer was investigated across different language pairs with gender systems of varying complexity and transparency. Experimental tasks differed in task demands and syntactic structures with varying agreement distances were used. Language proficiency of subjects was also manipulated. Based on my findings, I was able to identify which factors and which combination of factors increase or decrease gender transfer and to describe gender transfer as the result of a complex interplay of a combination of various factors.

Le présent travail est encadré dans le domaine de la linguistique appliquée de l'espagnol comme langue étrangère (ELE), et plus spécifiquement dans l'enseignement du genre grammatical en ELE. Notre intérêt en tant que enseignants c’est de pouvoir établir une méthode fiable selon les critères du Plan curricular de l'Institut Cervantès et la technique du consciousness-raising, ainsi que élaborer des activités destinées à l'enseignement du genre grammatical dans la classe d’ELE. L'enseignement d'ELE au Québec suit les mêmes méthodes qu'en Europe. En ce qui concerne l'enseignement du genre grammatical, les études consultées ratifient le manque d'instruction pertinente à propos du genre grammatical, ainsi que la difficulté dans la concordance même dans des niveaux avancés. Cependant, l'analyse de manuels d'ELE utilisés dans les diverses institutions de Montréal permet de conclure que ceux-ci ne suivent pas les règles établies par le Plan curricular en ce qui concerne l'enseignement du genre. Pour vérifier ces faits un travail de champ a été mis en place avec 84 étudiants et étudiantes de six institutions de Montréal pendant deux mois et deux semaines. Les résultats de la recherche et l'analyse d'erreurs nous montrent qu’il y a des problèmes avec le genre grammatical chez les étudiants de niveau intermédiaire et que les erreurs ne disparaissent pas avec les activités de renfort créées. Il est donc nécessaire d’adopter une méthode plus appropriée à l'apprentissage du genre grammatical dans une classe d’ELE et la présence du professeur pour la présenter. En effet, l'exécution d'activités créées n'est pas suffisant, car bien que les résultats montrent un léger progrès dans le cas du groupe B, ou d’expérience, en comparaison au groupe A, ou de control, on a constaté qu’une instruction formelle aurait entrainé un meilleur et plus complet apprentissage du genre grammatical dans le cas de nos étudiants; de là la nécessité d'établir une méthode fiable pour son enseignement. / The present work is part of the applied linguistics area; it particularly focuses on the methodology of teaching the grammatical gender in TSFL. Our interest as a teacher is to put together a reliable method, under the criteria of the Plan curricular of the Cervantes Institute and the technique of the consciousness-raising, also to elaborate activities for the teaching of the grammatical gender in Spanish as a Foreign Language SFL class. SFL is thought in Quebec with the same methods as those used in Europe. In regards to the grammatical gender, the consulted studies show the lack of pertinent instruction of the grammatical gender, as well as the difficulty in the assignment of the concordance in advanced levels. The analysis of SFL's manuals used in the diverse institutions of Montreal confirms that they do not follow the guidelines established by the Plan curricular. To verify these facts a two months and two weeks long fieldwork was carried out with 84 students. The students came from six different institutions of Montreal and were, therefore, divided in groups. The research’s results and the Errors’ Analysis confirm the existence of the grammatical gender problems in the students of intermediate level. Furthermore, the research shows that these mistakes do not disappear with reinforcement activities designed. In fact, it is necessary to adopt a method specifically adjusted to the learning of the grammatical gender in a SFL's class. Just as the method, the teacher should take a specific posture when teaching the grammatical gender. As shown by the results of the investigation, the execution of activities is not sufficient. The data demonstrate that the group B - categorized as of experience- has a slight progress in comparison to group A - control. Such results indicate that the formal instruction would have led to a better and more complete learning of the grammatical gender, hence the need to gather a reliable method of teaching. / El presente trabajo se enmarca dentro de la lingüística aplicada, y más específicamente dentro de la enseñanza del género gramatical en ELE. Nuestro interés como docente es poder armar un método confiable, bajo los criterios del Plan curricular del Instituto Cervantes y la técnica del consciousness-raising, y elaborar actividades para la enseñanza del género en clase de ELE. La enseñanza de ELE en Quebec sigue los mismos métodos que en Europa. En cuanto a la enseñanza del género gramatical, los estudios consultados muestran tanto la falta de instrucción pertinente sobre el género gramatical, como la dificultad en la asignación de la concordancia en niveles avanzados. El análisis de manuales de ELE utilizados en las diversas instituciones de Montreal confirma que no siguen las pautas establecidas por el Plan curricular. Para comprobar estos hechos se llevó a cabo un trabajo de campo con 84 estudiantes, divididos en grupos, de seis instituciones de Montreal durante dos meses y dos semanas. Los resultados de la investigación y el análisis de errores nos muestran que existen problemas de género gramatical en los estudiantes de nivel intermedio y que los errores no desaparecen solo con las actividades de refuerzo diseñadas, es necesario un método más adecuado para el aprendizaje del género gramatical en clase de ELE y la figura del profesor para presentarlo. En efecto, la ejecución de las actividades no es suficiente, pues aunque los resultados del grupo B o de experiencia exhiben un ligero progreso en comparación a los del grupo A o de control, se constata que la instrucción formal hubiera conducido a un mejor y más completo aprendizaje del género gramatical por parte de los estudiantes de la muestra; de ahí la necesidad de armar un método confiable para su enseñanza.

Le présent travail est encadré dans le domaine de la linguistique appliquée de l'espagnol comme langue étrangère (ELE), et plus spécifiquement dans l'enseignement du genre grammatical en ELE. Notre intérêt en tant que enseignants c’est de pouvoir établir une méthode fiable selon les critères du Plan curricular de l'Institut Cervantès et la technique du consciousness-raising, ainsi que élaborer des activités destinées à l'enseignement du genre grammatical dans la classe d’ELE. L'enseignement d'ELE au Québec suit les mêmes méthodes qu'en Europe. En ce qui concerne l'enseignement du genre grammatical, les études consultées ratifient le manque d'instruction pertinente à propos du genre grammatical, ainsi que la difficulté dans la concordance même dans des niveaux avancés. Cependant, l'analyse de manuels d'ELE utilisés dans les diverses institutions de Montréal permet de conclure que ceux-ci ne suivent pas les règles établies par le Plan curricular en ce qui concerne l'enseignement du genre. Pour vérifier ces faits un travail de champ a été mis en place avec 84 étudiants et étudiantes de six institutions de Montréal pendant deux mois et deux semaines. Les résultats de la recherche et l'analyse d'erreurs nous montrent qu’il y a des problèmes avec le genre grammatical chez les étudiants de niveau intermédiaire et que les erreurs ne disparaissent pas avec les activités de renfort créées. Il est donc nécessaire d’adopter une méthode plus appropriée à l'apprentissage du genre grammatical dans une classe d’ELE et la présence du professeur pour la présenter. En effet, l'exécution d'activités créées n'est pas suffisant, car bien que les résultats montrent un léger progrès dans le cas du groupe B, ou d’expérience, en comparaison au groupe A, ou de control, on a constaté qu’une instruction formelle aurait entrainé un meilleur et plus complet apprentissage du genre grammatical dans le cas de nos étudiants; de là la nécessité d'établir une méthode fiable pour son enseignement. / The present work is part of the applied linguistics area; it particularly focuses on the methodology of teaching the grammatical gender in TSFL. Our interest as a teacher is to put together a reliable method, under the criteria of the Plan curricular of the Cervantes Institute and the technique of the consciousness-raising, also to elaborate activities for the teaching of the grammatical gender in Spanish as a Foreign Language SFL class. SFL is thought in Quebec with the same methods as those used in Europe. In regards to the grammatical gender, the consulted studies show the lack of pertinent instruction of the grammatical gender, as well as the difficulty in the assignment of the concordance in advanced levels. The analysis of SFL's manuals used in the diverse institutions of Montreal confirms that they do not follow the guidelines established by the Plan curricular. To verify these facts a two months and two weeks long fieldwork was carried out with 84 students. The students came from six different institutions of Montreal and were, therefore, divided in groups. The research’s results and the Errors’ Analysis confirm the existence of the grammatical gender problems in the students of intermediate level. Furthermore, the research shows that these mistakes do not disappear with reinforcement activities designed. In fact, it is necessary to adopt a method specifically adjusted to the learning of the grammatical gender in a SFL's class. Just as the method, the teacher should take a specific posture when teaching the grammatical gender. As shown by the results of the investigation, the execution of activities is not sufficient. The data demonstrate that the group B - categorized as of experience- has a slight progress in comparison to group A - control. Such results indicate that the formal instruction would have led to a better and more complete learning of the grammatical gender, hence the need to gather a reliable method of teaching. / El presente trabajo se enmarca dentro de la lingüística aplicada, y más específicamente dentro de la enseñanza del género gramatical en ELE. Nuestro interés como docente es poder armar un método confiable, bajo los criterios del Plan curricular del Instituto Cervantes y la técnica del consciousness-raising, y elaborar actividades para la enseñanza del género en clase de ELE. La enseñanza de ELE en Quebec sigue los mismos métodos que en Europa. En cuanto a la enseñanza del género gramatical, los estudios consultados muestran tanto la falta de instrucción pertinente sobre el género gramatical, como la dificultad en la asignación de la concordancia en niveles avanzados. El análisis de manuales de ELE utilizados en las diversas instituciones de Montreal confirma que no siguen las pautas establecidas por el Plan curricular. Para comprobar estos hechos se llevó a cabo un trabajo de campo con 84 estudiantes, divididos en grupos, de seis instituciones de Montreal durante dos meses y dos semanas. Los resultados de la investigación y el análisis de errores nos muestran que existen problemas de género gramatical en los estudiantes de nivel intermedio y que los errores no desaparecen solo con las actividades de refuerzo diseñadas, es necesario un método más adecuado para el aprendizaje del género gramatical en clase de ELE y la figura del profesor para presentarlo. En efecto, la ejecución de las actividades no es suficiente, pues aunque los resultados del grupo B o de experiencia exhiben un ligero progreso en comparación a los del grupo A o de control, se constata que la instrucción formal hubiera conducido a un mejor y más completo aprendizaje del género gramatical por parte de los estudiantes de la muestra; de ahí la necesidad de armar un método confiable para su enseñanza.

L’attribution du genre grammatical est une notion complexe qu’il est difficile d’expliquer de manière rationnelle en français car elle est, la plupart du temps, arbitraire. Cette thèse a pour but de théoriser le genre grammatical attribué aux substantifs issus de l’alternance codique et aux emprunts de l’anglais au français. L’alternance codique est un phénomène individuel alors que l’emprunt est un phénomène collectif. Ces deux phénomènes linguistiques sont donc généralement considérés comme différents. Ainsi, le second objectif de cette thèse est de démontrer l’existence d’un continuum entre l’alternance codique et l’emprunt. Dans un premier temps, les concepts clés sont présentés, définis et exemplifiés. Puis, les principales notions caractérisant l’alternance codique et l’emprunt sont détaillées. Ce second chapitre met donc naturellement ces deux phénomènes en opposition dans le but de pouvoir les analyser comme un continuum lorsque des hypothèses concernant le genre grammatical qu’ils se voient attribuer sont formulées. Le troisième chapitre est consacré aux études de cas, et plus précisément à l’analyse de quatre corpus différents. Ce dernier chapitre a donc pour but de confirmer les hypothèses émises dans les deux chapitres précédents et permet de les classer dans cinq catégories afin d’expliquer l’attribution du genre grammatical. Ces catégories sont les suivantes : la raison extralinguistique, la raison interlinguistique, la raison métalinguistique, la raison à la fois interlinguistique et métalinguistique, et la raison grammaticale. Les résultats concernant les pourcentages de substantifs féminins et masculins sont présentés sous forme de graphiques, ainsi que ceux concernant les pourcentages de raisons expliquant l’attribution du genre grammatical aux substantifs issus de l’alternance codique, aux emprunts facultatifs, et aux emprunts obligatoires. Ainsi, l’interprétation de ces résultats est plus claire, plus objective, et plus scientifique. En outre, l’existence d’un continuum alternance codique – emprunt est par conséquent démontrée au moyen de l’explication de l’attribution du genre grammatical, ce qui crée un lien entre l’alternance codique et l’emprunt facultatif, ainsi que par le biais du processus de lexicalisation menant à l’emprunt facultatif, dans lequel l’alternance codique est le point de départ. Le lien entre l’alternance codique et l’emprunt obligatoire n’apparaît, quant à lui, pas de manière évidente étant donné que ces deux phénomènes linguistiques ne partagent pas de caractéristiques communes. / Grammatical gender attribution is quite a difficult notion to logically explain in French, due to the fact that it is, most of the time, arbitrary. This PhD thesis aims to theorise the grammatical gender allocated to codeswitched and borrowed substantives from English to French. Codeswitching and borrowing being generally considered as two distinct linguistic phenomena, since the former is an individual phenomenon, while the latter is a collective phenomenon, the second objective of this thesis is to demonstrate the existence of a codeswitching – borrowing continuum. Throughout three chapters, key concepts are firstly presented to lay the foundation of the thesis. Then, the main notions characterising codeswitching and borrowing are detailed – which naturally opposes these two linguistic devices – in order to eventually analyse them as a continuum, when hypothesising grammatical gender attribution. The last chapter devoted to case studies, and more precisely to the analysis of four different corpora, confirms the hypotheses exposed in the two previous chapters, and enables to classify them into five categories to explain grammatical gender attribution. These categories represent extralinguistic, interlinguistic, metalinguistic, both interlinguistic and metalinguistic, and grammatical reasons. Results on the percentages of feminine and masculine substantives, as well as the reasons explaining the grammatical gender allocated to codeswitched substantives, optional borrowings, and compulsory borrowings are displayed through graphs so that their interpretation is clearer, more objective, and more scientific. Additionally, the existence of a codeswitching – borrowing continuum is therefore demonstrated through the explanation of grammatical gender attribution, linking codeswitching with optional borrowing, as well as through the process of lexicalisation, in which codeswitching is the starting point of the chain, leading to optional borrowing. As for compulsory borrowing, connecting it with codeswitching is not that obvious considering that they do not share common features compared with optional borrowing.

The diploma thesis focuses on the so called "false friends" in contemporary Czech and Polish. Both languages are first introduced in the context of their linguistic and typological features as relevant to the subject of the thesis. Particular attention is paid to the differences between the two languages, and therefore possible language interferences. Furthermore, the paper discusses the issue of so called "false friends" and, based on the studies of E. Lotko, there were selected four types of false friends (grammatical (according to the grammatical gender of the noun), lexicographical, stylistic and valency false friends) and discussed more. Those lexical units are first characterized in general terms, and are then focused on the apecific "false friends" contained in the Common European Framework of Reference (levels A1-B1 for Czech as a foreign language). The second part of the thesis (based on the acquired theoretical knowledge) tries to design and recommend a methodology for working with so called "false friends" in the teaching of Czech as a foreign language to the target group of native Polish speakers. This includes worksheets for students as well as the methodology for teachers. Key words False friends, Interlanguage homonymity, Czech language, Polish language, Common European Framework of...