Quantitative analysis of gender assignment in mono/bilingual discourse

Abstract

The complex nature of gender assignment in a fusional language (Ukrainian) is studied by simultaneous examination of factors influencing gender assignment to native nouns and loanwords in the natural speech of Ukrainian‐English bilinguals in the USA. The application of quantitative methods shows that the choice of gender is influenced by semantic and formal criteria, each to a varying extent in different environments. The competing influence of the two criteria is evidenced by gender assignment to English‐origin nouns used in an otherwise Ukrainian discourse, bringing to the surface underlying contradictions in gender assignment within the recipient language.

Notes

I would like to thank Laird Jones for editorial assistance in preparing this manuscript.

Address correspondence to: Svitlana Budzhak‐Jones, Department Linguistics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.