The alternation of code and the intuitions of Spanish speakers as mother tongue

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an experiment in which L1 Spanish speakers judged code-switched sentences with the subject in English and the verb in Spanish (and vice versa). The aim of the study was to determine the language preference for the pronominal subject, as well as for number, and person. As hypothesized, subjects in Spanish were preferred over subjects in English. In terms of person, the preference was for third person singular when the subject was in English. When the subject was in Spanish, however, the third person singular was preferred over first and second person. This result was not expected due to the fact that the third person in English carries a person morpheme.