Phonological Processes in Code-Mixed Utterances: Tapping Across English-Spanish Language Boundaries

This study examines whether and how Spanish-English bilinguals apply English cross-word tapping in code-mixed utterances. Results of our production study indicate that the process can apply even when the environment is partially provided by a Spanish word (e.g., got abejas). However, the rate of its application is reduced relative to monolingual utterances (e.g., got asparagus), particularly for those who are more dominant in English on the first reading of a stimulus sentence. Based on these observations, we argue that the lower rate of the process application is not due to the phonological grammar itself (i.e., the grammar is not sensitive to the language of the environment), but rather to processing factors. We present a model that incorporates the processing factors, accounting for the varied application rates across conditions and speaker groups.