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Article published In: The Mental Lexicon
Vol. 20:1 (2025) ► pp.37–66

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Grammatical gender systems in the bilingual mental lexicon

Evidence from gender assignment in Russian-Hebrew code-switching

ORCiD logo with link | Bar-Ilan University
 | Bar-Ilan University
Published online: 5 November 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ml.25001.rek
Abstract
This study explores gender assignment strategies in Russian-Hebrew code-mixed adjective-noun phrases. Russian features a three-gender system (masculine, feminine, neuter), while Hebrew uses a two-gender system (masculine, feminine). Despite these differences, both languages share transparent gender assignment cues: nouns ending in -a are typically feminine, while those ending in consonants are generally masculine. Both languages also feature opaque nouns. Eighty Russian-Hebrew speakers participated, divided into heritage language (HL) speakers (age of bilingualism onset [AoB]: 0–6 years, dominant in Hebrew) and immigrant (IMM) speakers (AoB: 9+ years, dominant in Russian). Participants rated the acceptability of code-mixed sentences featuring Russian nouns within Hebrew matrix sentences. Results showed a preference for strategies combining shape-based and insertion approaches with transparent nouns, reflecting overlapping linguistic cues in both languages. The same strategies were preferred for opaque congruent nouns, where no gender conflict existed. For opaque gender-incongruent nouns, strategy use was shaped by the degree of overlap between the languages’ gender systems. Although differences between HL and IMM speakers were expected, no group variation in strategy use was found. These findings advance our understanding of gender assignment in code-switching contexts and shed light on how bilinguals represent and process gender when two linguistic gender systems are involved.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Code-switching in adjective-noun phrases
  • 3.Gender assignment strategies in code-mixed noun phrases
    • 3.1Gender systems of Russian and Hebrew
    • 3.2HL Russian in Israel
    • 3.3The current study: Research questions and hypotheses
  • 4.Materials and methods
    • 4.1Participants’ background characteristics
    • 4.2Participants’ code-switching experiences
    • 4.3The experimental task
    • 4.4Statistical analysis
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Results for the baseline non-code-mixed conditions
    • 5.2Results for the experimental code-mixed conditions
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1Research question 1: What gender assignment strategies do Russian-Hebrew bilinguals use in code-mixed adjective-noun phrases?
    • 6.2Research question 2: How do differences in language proficiency and dominance between HL and IMM bilinguals influence gender assignment strategies?
    • 6.3Implications for gender architecture in the bilingual lexicon
    • 6.4Limitations and directions for further study
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
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