Maria del Carmen Parafita Couto
University Lecturer
- Name
- Dr. M. Parafita Couto
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2644
- m.parafita.couto@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0001-7306-3393
Maria Carmen Parafita Couto studies the impact of bilingualism and language contact on language structure, mostly the syntax of code-switching.
Fields of interest
- Bilingualism
- Language contact
- Code-switching
- Dialect syntax
- Linguistic interfaces
- Sociolinguistics
- Integration of corpus studies and experimental research
Research
I study the impact of bilingualism and language contact on language structure, mostly the syntax of code-switching. My research program takes a cross-disciplinary approach using converging methodological tools ranging from corpus data to behavioural methods, and more recently also electrophysiological measures.
Teaching activities
- Spanish Syntax
- Bilingualism in the Spanish speaking world
- De Erfenis van Trajanus
- Master: Language variation and language change in Latin America
Curriculum vitae
I received my PhD in Linguistics at the University of Kansas (2005). After three years as an assistant professor of Spanish and Linguistics at Kenyon College (Ohio, USA), I joined the ESRC Center for Research on Bilingualism (Bangor, Wales) as a project researcher (2008-2012). Before moving to Leiden, I spent one year as a faculty member at the School of Humanities at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow).
I have worked with colleagues to develop a research center (CeIBA- Centro para la investigación del bilingüismo y aprendizaje) on language, bilingualism and education at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. I am also an affiliate member of the Bilingualism Research Centre at Bangor University, the Bilingualism Research Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the ELEBILAB at the University of the Basque Country, and the Centre for the Comparative Study of the Americas at Swansea University.
University Lecturer
- Faculty of Humanities
- Leiden Univ Centre for Linguistics
- LUCL TCLA
- Osch B.A. van, Boers I.H.G., Grijzenhout J., Parafita Couto M.C., Sterken B.D. & Tat D. (2022), Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual grammars: Evidence from gender assignment in unilingual Dutch and mixed speech. In: Ayoun D. (Ed.) The Acquisition of Gender. Crosslinguistic perspectives.. no. 63 Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Bellamy K. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2022), Gender assignment in mixed noun phrases: State of the art. In: Ayoun D. (Ed.) The Acquisition of Gender. Crosslinguistic perspectives. Studies in Bilingualism no. 63: John Benjamins.
- Gathercole V.C.M., Stadthagen-González H., Parafita Couto M.C., Mulder H.N.M. de, Pérez-Tattam R.S., Bosma E., Borisova B.Z. & Romaneli M.G. (2022), Moveable Figures and Grounds: Making the case for the dual nature of motion events as events of motion AND change of state. In: Levie R. (Ed.) Developing language and literacy: Studies in honor of Dorit Diskin Ravid.: Springer Nature Switzerland.
- Balam O., Lakshmanan U. & Parafita Couto M. (2021), Gender assignment strategies among simultaneous Spanish/English bilingual children from Miami, Florida, Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 14(2): 241-280.
- Cruz Rico H., Mauder E.M.A., Barceló-Coblijn L. & Parafita Couto M. (2021), Niños bilingües español-neerlandés en Ámsterdam y en Mallorca: evidencia de la importancia del input y del contexto en la adquisición del género gramatical en español, Revista Nebrija De Lingüística Aplicada a La Enseñanza De Lenguas 15(30): 14-38.
- Munarriz-Ibarrola A., Ezeizabarrena M.J., Arrazola V. & Parafita Couto M. (2021), Gender assignment strategies and L1 effects in the elicited production of mixed Spanish-Basque DPs, Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism .
- Suurmeijer L., Parafita Couto M. & Gullberg M. (2020), Structural and Extralinguistic Aspects of Code-Switching: Evidence from Papiamentu-Dutch Auditory Sentence Matching, Frontiers in Psychology 11: 1-11.
- Boers I.H.G., Sterken B.D., Osch B.A. van, Parafita Couto M.C., Grijzenhout J. & Tat D. (2020), Gender in unilingual and mixed speech of Spanish heritage speakers in the Netherlands, Languages 5(4): 68.
- Vaughan-Evans A., Parafita Couto M.C., Boutonnet B., Hoshino N., Webb-Davies P., Deuchar M. & Thierry G. (2020), Switchmate! An electrophysiological attempt to adjudicate between competing accounts of adjective-noun code-switching, Frontiers in Psychology 11: 549762.
- Balam O., Parafita Couto M. & Stadthagen-González H. (2020), Bilingual Verbs in Three Spanish/English Code-Switching Communities, The International Journal of Bilingualism 24(5-6): 952–967.
- Sheehan M., Blokzijl J. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2020), Inflected infinitives in Galician. In: Vogel I., Miller T., Kostyszyn K. (Eds.) Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory (LSRL 47)..
- Valdés Kroff J.R., Rooijakkers F. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2019), Spanish Grammatical Gender Interference in Papiamentu, Languages 4(4).
- Balam O. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2019), Adjectives in Spanish/English Code-Switching: Avoidance of Grammatical Gender in Bi/Multilingual Speech, Spanish in Context 16(2): 194-216.
- Sheehan M., Schäfer M. & Parafita Couto M. (2019), Crowdsourcing and Minority Languages: The Case of Galician Inflected Infinitives, Frontiers in Psychology 10: 1157.
- Bierings E., Parafita Couto M.C. & Mateo Pedro P. (2019), Contrasting code-switching theories: Insights from Kaqchikel-Spanish code-switched nominal constructions. In: Ryan Bennett, Robert Henderson, Pedro Mateo Pedro, Megan Harvey (Eds.) Proceedings of Form and Analysis in Mayan Linguistics, 5. UC Santa Cruz: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6m86k80j.
- Pablos L., Parafita Couto M.C., Boutonnet B., Jong A. de, Perquin M., Haan A. de & Schiller N.O. (2019), Adjective-noun order in Papiamento-Dutch code-switching, Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 9: 710-735.
- Witteman J., Chen Y., Pablos-Robles L., Parafita Couto M.C., Wong, P.C.M., Schiller & N.O. (2018), (Pushing) the Limits of Neuroplasticity Induced by Adult Language Acquisition. Member of editorial staff Frontiers in Psychology 9.
- Bellamy K.R., Parafita Couto M. & Stadthagen-González H. (2018), Investigating gender assignment strategies in mixed Purepecha-Spanish nominal constructions, Languages 3(3).
- Munarriz-Ibarrola A., Parafita Couto M.C. & Wyngaerd E. van den (2018), Methodologies for intra-sentential code-switching research, Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 8(I): 1-4.
- Brandl A. González C. Leeser M., Muntendam A., Parafita Couto M.C. & Reglero L. (2017), Introducing the Special Issue: Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World. Member of editorial staff (2).
- Blokzijl J., Deuchar M. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2017), Determiner Asymmetry in Mixed Nominal Constructions: The Role of Grammatical Factors in Data from Miami and Nicaragua, Languages 2(4).
- Parafita Couto M.C. & Stadthagen-González H. (2017), El book or the libro? Insights from acceptability judgments into determiner/noun code-switches, The International Journal of Bilingualism 23(1): 349-360.
- Stadthagen-González H., Parafita Couto M., Párraga A. & Damian M. (2017), Testing alternative theoretical accounts of code-switching: Insights from comparative judgments of adjective–noun order, The International Journal of Bilingualism 23(1): 200-220.
- Stadthagen-González H., López L., Parafita Couto M.C. & Párraga A. (2017), Using two-alternative forced choice tasks and Thurstone’s law of comparative judgments for code-switching research, Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism .
- Parafita Couto M.C. & Gullberg M. (2017), Code-switching within the noun phrase: Evidence from three corpora, The International Journal of Bilingualism 23(2): 695-714.
- Lauchlan Fraser & Parafita Couto M.C. (Eds.) (2017), Bilingualism and minority languages in Europe: Current trends and developments.: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- Lauchlan F. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2017), Bilingualism and Minority Languages: The Current Context in Europe. In: Lauchlan F., Parafita Couto M.C. (Eds.) Bilingualism and minority languages in Europe: Current trends and developments.. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars. 1-1.
- Shim J., Ihsane T. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2017), Clausal and Nominal Complements in Monolingual and Bilingual Grammars Member of editorial staff Languages .
- Bellamy K.R., Child M.W., Muntendam A. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2017), Introduction: Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone world. In: Bellamy K.R., Child M.W., González P., Muntendam A. & Parafita Couto M.C. (Eds.) Multidisciplinary Approaches to Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World. no. 13 Amsterdarm: John Benjamins.
- Bellamy K. Child M.W., González P., Muntendam A. & Parafita Couto M.C (Eds.) (2017), Multidisciplinary Approaches to Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World no. 13. Amsterdarm: John Benjamins.
- Bellamy K., Child M.W., González González P. & Muntendam A. Parafita Couto M.C. (Eds.) (2017), Multidisciplinary Approaches to Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Oushiro L. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2017), Old variables, new meanings: resignification of rural speech variants in São Paulo’s Portuguese urban ecology. In: Urban Sociolinguistics. The city as a linguistic process and experience..: Routledge. 58-76.
- Parafita Couto M.C., Boutonnet B., Hoshino N., Davies P., Deuchar M. & Thierry G. (2017), Testing Alternative Theoretical Accounts of Code-Switching using Event-related Brain Potentials: A Pilot Study on Welsh-English.. In: Bilingualism and minority languages in Europe: Current trends and developments.. Newcaslte: Cambride Scholars. 242-256.
- Parafita Couto M.C., Pérez-Tattam R. & Guijarro-Fuentes P. (2017), The nominal domain in Dutch-Papiamento-Spanish multilinguals in the Netherlands.. In: Lauchlan F., Parafita Couto M.C. (Eds.) Bilingualism and minority languages in Europe: Current trends and developments.. Newcaslte: Cambride Scholars. 162-184.
- Guzzardo Tamargo R., Mazak C. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2016), Introduction: Multiple influencing factors, diverse participants, varied techniques: Interdisciplinary approaches to the study of Spanish-English codeswitching. In: Guzzardo Tamargo R., Mazak C., Parafita Couto M.C. (Eds.) Spanish-English Codeswitching in the Caribbean and the US. no. 11 Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 1-7.
- Guzzardo Tamargo R., Mazak C. & Parafita Couto M.C (Eds.) (2016), Spanish-English Codeswitching in the Caribbean and the US no. 11. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Gullberg M. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2016), An integrated perspective on code-mixing patterns beyond doubling?, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition .
- Guijarro-Fuentes P., Parafita Couto M.C., Pérez-Tattam R. & Wildeboer M. (2016), The non native acquisition of Spanish (un)interpretable features by Dutch L1 learners. In: Guijarro-Fuentes P., Juan-Garau M., Larrañaga Pilar (Eds.) Acquisition of Romance Languages Old Acquisition Challenges and New Explanations from a Generative Perspective. no. 52: DE GRUYTER MOUTON. 199-230.
- Parafita Couto M.C., Munarriz A., Epelde I., Deuchar M. & Oyharçabal B. (2015), Gender conflict resolution in Basque-Spanish mixed DPs, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 18(2): 304-323.
- Parafita Couto M.C., Fusser M. & Deuchar M. (2015), How do Welsh-English bilinguals deal with conflict? Adjective-noun order resolution. In: Stell G., Yakpo K. (Eds.) Code-switching at the crossroads between structural and sociolinguistic perspectives.: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Parafita Couto M.C., Mueller Gathercole V.C. & Stadthagen-González H. (2015), Interface strategies in monolingual and end-state L2 Spanish grammars are not that different, Frontiers in Psychology 5:1525.
- Parafita Couto M. (2015), The Babel brain and language juggling, TheLinguist@NTNU 1(1): 2-4.
- Deuchar M., Davies P., Herring J., Parafita Couto M. C. & Carter D. (2014), Building Bilingual Corpora. In: Thomas E., Mennen I. (Eds.) Advances in the Study of Bilingualism. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. 93-110.
- Munarriz A. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2014), ¿Cómo estudiar el cambio de código? Incorporación de diferentes metodologías en el caso de varias comunidades bilingües, Lapurdum. Basque Studies Review XVIII: 43-73.
- Parafita Couto M. C., Davies P., Carter D. & Deuchar M. (2014), Factors Influencing Code-Switching. In: Thomas E., Mennen I. (Eds.) Advances in the Study of Bilingualism. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. 111-140.
- Smith-Christmas C., Davies P., Parafita Couto M.C. & Thoms G. (2013), How do Gaelic-English bilinguals deal with grammatical conflict? Evidence from mixed nominal constructions, Soillse Research Papers .
- Parafita Couto M. C (2013), Review of Field, Fredric. Bilingualism in the USA Review of: Field, Fredric. (2011) Bilingualism in the USA. The case of the Chicano-Latino Community., Studies in Bilingualism, Hispania 96(3): 591-592.
- Stell G. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2012), Code-switching practices in Luxembourg’s Lusophone minority: A pilot study on how an immigrant community linguistically behaves differently from the majority, Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 31(1): 153-185.
- Rodríguez González E. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2012), Unpacking assumptions behind Spanglish: Interdisciplinary approaches within Linguistics, Hispania 95(3): 460-479.
- Carter D., Deuchar M., Davies P. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2011), A systematic comparison of factors affecting the choice of matrix language in three bilingual communities, Journal of Language Contact 4(2): 153-183.
- Parafita Couto M.C., Carter D., Davies P. & Deuchar M. (2011), Factors determining code-switching patterns in Spanish-English and Welsh-English communities, Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada .
- Carter D., Parafita Couto M.C., Davies P. & Deuchar M. (2010), A corpus-based analysis of codeswitching patterns in bilingual communities, Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada .
- Carter D. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2010), Review of: Domínguez L., Arche M.J. (2008) Optionality in L2 Grammars: the Acquisition of SV / VS Contrast in Spanish, Proceedings of the Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boletín de ASELE 44: 62-63.
- Herring J., Deuchar M., Parafita Couto M.C. & Moro R. (2010), "When I went to Canada, I saw the madre": evaluating two theories' predictions about codeswitching between determiners and nouns using Spanish-English and Welsh-English bilingual corpora, International journal of bilingual education and bilingualism 13(5): 553-573.
- Parafita Couto M.C. (2009), Rightward Ho!, Linguistic Analysis 35(1-4): 163-196.
- Putnam M. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2009), When grammars collide: Codeswitching and the Survive Principle. In: Putnam M. (Ed.) The Survive Principle in a Crash-Proof Syntax.: John Benjamins. 133-169.
- Deuchar M., Lloyd S.W. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2008), Bilingualism in Wales: Bangor Centre for Research on Bilingualism, Interpret Wales 9: 14-15.
- Parafita Couto M.C. & Putnam M. (2008), Exploring the Focus-morphology interface: Morphosyntactic aspects of non prosodic Focus, Selected Proceedings of the 2007 Mid American Linguistics Conference. Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics 30: 212-225.
- Parafita Couto M.C. (2008), Review of: Beswick Jaine E. (2007) Regional Nationalism in Spain: Language Use and Ethnic Identity in Galicia, “Linguistic Diversity and Language Rights”, LINGUIST List .
- Parafita Couto M.C. & Rodríguez González E. (2008), Review of: Gafaranga J. (2007) Talking in Two Languages, LINGUIST List .
- Parafita Couto M.C. (2007), Dialectal variation in Galician verbs: conflicts and violations, Madrigal: Journal of Galician Studies 10: 93-105.
- Parafita Couto M.C. (2006), The left is actually so right!, Proceedings of the Discourse-Prosody Interface Symposium .
- Parafita Couto M.C. (2004), Agreement and Focus in Galician Inflected Infinitives (long version), Kansas working papers in Linguistics 27: 66-91.
- Parafita Couto M.C. (2004), Is Focus a Uniform Phenomenon in Galician?, Proceedings of FIGS 1: French and Italian graduate student conference in Linguistics .
- Parafita Couto M.C. (2003), Agreement and Focus in Galician Inflected Infinitives (short version), The Working Papers of the Linguistics Circle 17: 117-126.
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