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Gender in Russian—English code-switching

Cherepovets State University, Russia, gnchirsheva{at}yahoo.com

English code-switched nouns in Russian clauses are assigned gender according to two competing strategies — semantic analogy and form. The purpose of this article is to analyze how gender assignment is realized in Russian/English bilingual contexts. The data are represented by spontaneous speech of native Russian speakers, both adults and children, in the USA and Russia. Supporting data are obtained from a form, which asked respondents to add gender suffixes to Russian adjectives, determiners and verbs that agree with English nouns. Gender as part of Russian speakers' linguistic competence must be assigned even to nouns from a non-gender language, but this is done in a specific way: the prevailing strategy is to assign masculine as a default gender for the nouns ending in a consonant. Gender assignment system in bilingual Russian/English contexts presents a restricted version, with the phonological criterion being more significant than semantic analogy. The process of allotting code-switched nouns and borrowings to genders in Russian appears to have different degrees of vacillation.

Key Words: Code-switching • gender agreement • gender assignment

International Journal of Bilingualism, Vol. 13, No. 1, 63-90 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1367006909103529


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