Testing competing accounts of adjective-noun code-switching in a Spanish-English written corpus

Abstract The testing of competing accounts of adjective-noun code-switching involving language pairs with different rules for adjective placement has produced inconclusive results. Some studies have found that word order is determined by the language of the verb, as predicted by the Matrix Language Framework, others point to the language of the adjective, as predicted by the Minimalist Program, and some have found an additive effect in which both the language of the verb and the language of the adjective determine word order. These results are based on the analysis of naturalistic oral data or controlled, experimental data. This paper provides new insights by analyzing a corpus of written Spanish-English code-switching. Results show that the pre-nominal position is preferred for both English and Spanish adjectives regardless of the language of the verb or the language of the adjective.