Spanish learners of Portuguese as a non-native language: grammatical gender assignment in suffixed words

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Published: 06-03-2023

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Tânia Santos Ferreira
Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Coimbra
Portugal
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8045-3506
Graça Rio-Torto
Centro de Estudos de Linguística Geral e Aplicada (CELGA-ILTEC) Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
Portugal
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1525-0737
Vol 15 No 1 (2023): Estudos de Lingüística Galega, Pescuda
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15304/elg.15.8453
Submitted: 11-05-2022 Accepted: 09-11-2022 Published: 06-03-2023
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Abstract

This study aims to analyze the grammatical gender assignment of Portuguese suffixed nouns by late native Spanish learners, attending classes of different learning levels, from A1 to C2. In the survey, were selected event, state and/or abstract names presenting thematic indices of low degree of transparency regarding grammatical gender attribution, such as the Athematic names, suffixed in -agem, those of Theme ø ([ɐ̃w̃]), suffixed in -ção, -s[z]ão and -ão, and those of Theme -e (invariable), suffixed in -ice and in -idade. From the empirical data analysis, there was a considerable decrease in deviations as learners progressed in their learning of Portuguese, since in the C1‑C2 segment, the deviation values were residual. There was also a high incidence of deviations in feminine nouns suffixed in -agem, especially in the beginning and intermediate levels, which may be correlated to the fact that the Spanish cognate -aje creates masculine nouns. Thus, this asymmetry translates, especially at early stages of learning, into language transfer effects in the performance of these learners. Furthermore, the high deviation rates found among the names suffixed in -ice and also among the items suffixed in -ão shows that the degree of representativeness and opacity of the suffix in the input constrain the gender values assignment of nouns.

Keywords:

gender acquisition, Portuguese language, Spanish language, derived names, Portuguese as a foreign language, interlanguage
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