bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Gemination in English loans in American varieties of Italian
Authors: Repetti Lori
Published: March 2014

Why do geminate consonants frequently appear in borrowed words when the foreign form does not contain a geminate? In this paper I review previous approaches to this problem, and suggest that they are insufficient in accounting for consonant length contrasts in English loan words in North American varieties of Italian. I suggest that many factors are involved in the determination of consonant length in loans, including aspects of the grammar of the borrowing language (in this case, Italian) — such as the inventory of segments, the structure of the stressed syllable, and the presence of similar native lexical items — as well as the interpretation of the morphological structure and phonetic details of the foreign word.
Nasal harmony and the representation of nasality in Maxacalí
Authors: Wetzels W. Leo
Published: March 2014

Popovich (1971) claimed that nasality in Maxacalí is contrastive for both consonants and vowels. Rodrigues (1980) proposes to eliminate nasality entirely from the set of phonological features of Maxacalí and to represent all voiced, prenasalized and nasal consonants as voiced consonants in the lexical representation. In this paper, we take up this discussion and present an alternative analysis that is intermediate between the proposals by Popovich and Rodrigues. On the basis of evidence drawn from the adaptation of Brazilian loanwords in Maxacalí, it is concluded that nasality is contrastive for vowels.
Middle English vowel length in French loanwords
Authors: Burnett Ashley L.
Published: March 2014

Previous analyses of vowel length in French loanwords have relied on the Middle English processes of Open Syllable Lengthening and Closed Syllable Shortening, but have left many exceptions unaccounted for. Recently, Vennemann (2000) and Murray (2000) have provided compelling evidence that Middle English was a syllable cut language, whereby the cut of a syllable determined vowel length. Expanding on this model, I argue that vowel length in French loanwords was determined primarily by the reanalysis of syllables within the syllable cut system of Middle English. Syllables reanalyzed as smoothly cut were assigned long vowels when stressed and short vowels when unstressed, while syllables reanalyzed as abruptly cut were always assigned short vowels. A second factor in the reanalysis of loanwords was the existence of long vowels in French, which induced smooth cuts. Consequently, the assignment of vowel length in French loanwords can be seen to have followed regular patterns.
Dialect variation and the Dutch diminutive
Authors: Smith Laura Catharine
Published: March 2014

In Dutch, the diminutive stem’s prosodic shape determines whether or not schwa follows base nouns ending in sonorants: schwa after light stems (ball-e-tje ‘little ball’) but no schwa after heavy stems (laan-tje ‘little lane’) or disyllables (bakker-tje ‘little baker’). Schwa lengthens light stems to fit a disyllabic template specifying the necessary stem shape for diminutivisation. This paper shows that this template uses the moraic trochee of Early Germanic rather than the syllabic trochee of Modern Dutch. Further supporting evidence comes from dialects where vowel lengthening can also satisfy the template. Moreover, dialect variation also shows the expansion of the template in some dialects, but loss in others.
On the disappearance of genitive types in Middle English
Authors: Allen Cynthia L.
Published: March 2014

This paper looks at the disappearance of the ‘objective’ genitive with nouns of emotion in which the Stimulus of Emotion is a prenominal genitive, e.g. godes lufu ‘God’s love’ in the meaning of someone’s love towards God. A systematic corpus-based investigation involving three nouns of emotion indicates that this construction was obsolescent by the end of the Middle English period. I suggest that the favouring of of phrases over genitives reduced the evidence available to language learners necessary to construct grammars incorporating a marked assignment of semantic to grammatical roles.
An asymmetric view on stage II in Jespersen’s cycle in the West Germanic languages
Authors: Breitbarth Anne
Published: March 2014

Irrespective of the directionality they postulate for the loss of the preverbal marker, most approaches to Jespersen’s cycle assume a “symmetric” bipartite negation in stage II, in which both the old and the new marker participate in the expression of negation, be it as parts of one discontinuous construction, or be it because one is licensed by the other in some way. The current paper discusses problems with this from a perspective of the West Germanic languages and argues that the two markers must be functionally differentiated at stage II in these languages and therefore proposes an “asymmetric” interpretation of stage II. Rather than assuming that both parts of the bipartite construction express negation, it is argued that the preverbal marker undergoes a morphosyntactic change by which it is reanalysed as the lexicalisation of the head of a high polarity projection.
Imperative morphology in diachrony evidence from the Romance languages
Authors: Maiden Martin , Swearingen Andrew , O'Neill Paul
Published: March 2014

This paper presents an initial comparative-historical synthesis of Romance affirmative imperative morphology. It explores its implications for morphological change generally. Imperatives emerge as a recurrent locus of suppletion and defectiveness, which can uniquely escape morphological changes affecting other parts of the paradigm, yet provide the basis for analogical remodelling and compound noun formation. We compare our findings with some made for imperatives in non-European languages and with evidence from acquisitional literature, to suggest that imperative forms are learned earlier than other wordforms in the paradigm, and may become primary exponents of the lexical meaning of the verb.
The emergence of DP in the history of English
Authors: Osawa Fuyo
Published: March 2014

I claim that the genitive case played a very important role in the emergence of a functional D system in English. I take up the rise of a group genitive, which puzzled Janda (1980), as an example since this is a change from morphology to syntax, going against the dictum that “today’s morphology is yesterday’s syntax” (Givón 1971). Against the accepted view that the genitive case is the only survivor of the morphological cases in English, I argue that the genitive case lost its original argumental function earlier than other morphological cases, which contributed to the emergence of DPs. I will show that the shift from morphology to syntax is not anomalous and that it triggers diachronic change. Today’s morphology will be tomorrow’s syntax. I also claim that the Old English thematically-motivated case system is the key to analysing what happened to nominal structures in the history of English.
A diachronic view of Psychological verbs with Dative Experiencers in Spanish and Romanian
Authors: Rivero María Luisa , Diaconescu Constanta Rodica
Published: March 2014

We offer a diachronic view of Spanish/Romanian Psychological constructions with Dative Experiencers, which are not always stative. Spanish constructions with Dative Experiencers can be telic, with an aspectual reflexive, or stative, without reflexive. The contrast exists in the earliest documents, and guides the evolution of Psychological constructions in the postmedieval period to the present. In earlier Spanish/Romanian, Dative Experiencers could be in High Applicatives encoded as a clitic, with or without Dative phrase. Alternatively, Experiencers could be in Locative Phrases, encoded as just a Dative Phrase/ pronoun, without clitic. The Locative type was lost, so Dative Experiencers became Applicatives with obligatory clitics in Spanish/Romanian. Nominatives became obligatory in Psychological constructions with Dative Experiencers in Spanish, but not Romanian. Earlier Spanish/Romanian shared nominativeless constructions with Oblique Themes found in present Romanian but not Spanish, where they are restricted to inalienable possession.
The rise of peripheral modifiers in the noun phrase
Authors: Van de Velde Freek
Published: March 2014

As is not always recognised in the scholarly literature, the template of the noun phrase (np/dp) in Dutch and English contains a slot for peripheral modifiers, which precedes the determiner slot and hosts adverbial modifiers. In this article I argue that this slot is of recent date —it is an Early Modern Dutch and Early Modern English innovation, probably as a result of a reanalysis process— and that it has steadily been on the increase, both on the token level and on the type level. The analysis is based on historical corpus data. On a theoretical note, the present study shows that the np slot should not be viewed as a fixed, stable constellation, but can change over time.
Change of functions of the first person pronouns in Chinese
Authors: Lai Vicky Tzuyin , Frajzyngier Zygmunt
Published: March 2014

In Classical Chinese, there were four first person pronouns: wu2, wo3, yu2, yu3, and a zero-pronoun1 with the following functions: wu2 was the default marking the speaker; wo3 coded contrast between the speaker and others; yu3 was used when talking about the speaker in connection with heaven, kings, or death; yu2 was used exclusively by kings and by speakers with high social status. The zero pronoun is primarily used in the second situation. Various social changes have motivated the reduction of pronouns. In Mandarin,2 only wo3 and the zero pronoun are in use. Yu3 has been lost because the domains in which it was used are no longer taboo. Yu2 exists only in modern artists’ speech. Wo3 is retained as the default, while wo3 with a longer vowel and full fall-rise tone codes contrastive function. The zero pronoun is also retained. The findings imply that the lack of functional motivation for a form leads to its loss.
Variation in real time
Authors: Verdù Orland
Published: March 2014

Our research on the local variation of Catalan in Petrer (Alicante) analyses language variation in real time with a focus on a sound change in progress. Studying the replacement of the palatal affricate voiced consonant by its corresponding voiceless sound, we aim to define the extension and progress of this change though a comparison of the results obtained by B. Montoya (1985) in his thesis to our results, taken between 2006 and 2007. To determine if the variable rule is a cyclic phenomenon repeated generation after generation, or if local variability in sound change has progressed, we have recovered a certain number of people selected in the original sample to have them undergo an identical interview again. Our results have revealed that at this time sound change has not stopped. On the contrary, even the older speakers show a higher tendency to apply the variable rule.
UNIDIA
Authors: Hamed Mahé Ben , Flavier Sébastien
Published: March 2014

UNIDIA is a database on sound change designed to compile the sound change hypotheses formulated to account for the phonological evolution of the languages of the world. It aims at deriving a data-based typology of sound change, universals, tendencies and sound change distributions. It now contains about 3750 sound changes for some 190 languages, essentially sampled from the Bantu, Sinitic and Daic language groups. This data can be explored based on various phonetic criteria, and sound change distributions can be represented on a geographical map or on a language family tree. At completion, UNIDIA should be representative of how phonological evolution is construed by the community of historical linguists and could become a useful tool for testing competing models of language evolution.
Visualization, validation and seriation
Authors: Dupuis Fernande , Lebart Ludovic
Published: March 2014

Principal axes methods (such as correspondence analysis [CA]) provide useful visualizations of high-dimensional data sets. In the context of historical textual data, these techniques produce planar maps highlighting the associations between graphemes and texts (paragraphs, chapters, full texts, authors). First, we recall that a simple technique of seriation (re-ordering the rows and columns of a table) is readily derived from the first CA axis. Second, we stress the important role played by bootstrap techniques to allow for valid statistical inferences in a context in which a classical analytical approach is both unrealistic and analytically complex. A series of medieval French texts (12th–13th centuries), rich in spelling variants, exemplify the proposed approaches. A free software program is available.
Quantifying linguistic changes
Authors: Sandoy Helge
Published: March 2014

There are reasons for assuming that different types of communities provide different social conditions for linguistic changes with consequences at least for the speed and for the type of grammatical changes. In order to explore this question, we need both a typology of communities and a model for measuring the extent of linguistic change. In this article I suggest and discuss a way of measuring by which it should be possible to systematically compare the degree of linguistic change. The tentative calculations will primarily be illustrated by data from dialects in Norway in the 20th century.
Historical core vocabulary: Spring and/or anchor
Authors: Skybina Valentina , Galutskikh Iryna
Published: March 2014

This paper argues that lexis evolution is guided by certain internal impulses generated and stimulated by the processes taking place in its historical core (HCV) comprised by the lexemes dating back to the earliest stages of the language history and characterized by simple morphological structure, stylistic neutrality, polysemy, high derivational potential, and high frequency.1 Diachronic research of the lexes of two cognate languages – English and German – demonstrated that these characteristics not only account for the HCV longevity but also ensure its structural, semantic, and functional centrality, and consequently, evolutionary significance. The study demonstrated that the role the HCV plays in lexis evolution is twofold. On the one hand, the interplay of its inherent characteristics, that ensured its structural and semantic ties with the entire lexis, makes it a stabilizing factor. On the other hand, the same attributes alongside with intense developmental processes in the HCV which are disseminated throughout the system make it a powerful dynamic factor.
Tracing the origin of modality in the creoles of Suriname
Authors: Migge Bettina
Published: March 2014

Creole TMA systems have figured prominently in debates on creole genesis. Bickerton argued that the similarities between creole TMA systems support the operation of a language bioprogram in creole formation. Lefebvre maintains that the similarities between the Haitian and Fongbe TMA system are evidence of the importance of substrate influence.While insightful, these studies are not conclusive. This paper therefore investigates the origin of two subsystems of modality in the creoles of Suriname. Based on a comparison of the strategies employed by three maroon creoles and their main substrate, and a consideration of early textual evidence, it argues that contact-induced and language-internal change contributed to the emergence and development of the modality system of the creoles of Suriname.
Modelling Creole Genesis
Authors: Veenstra Tonjes
Published: March 2014

In this paper we address two current claims in creole studies: (i) adults in the creolization are the innovators; (ii) the grammatical properties of creoles are either the result of continuities from the superstrate language(s) or from the substrate language(s), i.e. discontinuities are assumed not to exist. On the basis of a careful examination of the structure and emergence of synthetic compounds in the Surinamese creoles, in particular Saramaccan, we conclude that we cannot leave out the contribution of nativizing part of the population in the creolization process, as well as that discontinuities, i.e. properties that diverge from all the languages present in the original contact situation, do exist. As such, the research reported on here can be viewed as supporting the cascade-approach of DeGraff (1999).
Syntactic properties of negation in Chinook Jargon, with a comparison of two source languages
Authors: Vrzić Zvjezdana
Published: March 2014

This paper analyzes the syntactic features of sentential negation in Chinook Jargon (CJ) and compares them with the features of Lower Chinook and Upper Chehalis. The analyses is carried out within the framework of Principles and Parameters syntax and looks at the positioning and the categorical status of the CJ negative marker, followed by the analysis of the relationship of the negative marker with negative NPs within the clause. The comparison of sentential negation in CJ and its source languages establishes that important similarities exist between CJ and its source languages, suggesting that these properties in CJ are due to contact influence. The paper ends with a brief discussion of how these findings reflect on the issue of linguistic constraints on contact influence.
The advantages of a blockage-based etymological dictionary for proven or putative relexified languages
Authors: Wexler Paul
Published: March 2014

Yiddish is generally regarded as a form of High German that underwent extreme Slavicization over some seven centuries. I believe, in contrast, that Yiddish is a mixed Slavic language that was created by two separate processes of relexification between the 9th–15th centuries: from Upper Sorbian and Kiev-Polessian (contemporary North Ukrainian and Southern Belarusian) to Middle High German and, secondarily, Classical Hebrew. The relexification was described in great detail in earlier studies of mine. The present paper shows (1) why an etymological dictionary of a relexified language must be radically different from that of a non-relexified language and (2) why such a dictionary is an ideal way to demonstrate the fact of relexification.
The progressive in the spoken Papiamentu of Aruba
Authors: Sanchez Tara
Published: March 2014

This paper investigates the use of the progressive morpheme, -ndo, in spoken Aruban Papiamentu using variationist methods. The morpheme is used with durative verbs to mark progressive or repeated action. Achievement verbs with -ndo indicate repeated action. -ndo use is associated with social prestige, and is used more frequently by each successive generation. These results complement those of Sanchez (2002), which traced the real time development of -ndo in its gerundive and progressive uses in texts, and attributed the rise of the progressive function to contact with English. Here we see that Papiamentu -ndo behaves more like English -ing than Spanish -ndo, and that speakers who learned Papiamentu before it came in contact with English do not use this form.
16. Bare nouns in Berbice Dutch Creole
Authors: Kouwenberg Silvia
Published: March 2014

Berbice Dutch determinerless nouns occur frequently in factive contexts, as specific reference nouns – an unexpected finding, as specific reference is usually associated with definiteness, and Berbice Dutch does not lack a definite article. I argue that specific reference as established in discourse is marked by an overt definite article, but that specific reference which is established outside the discourse is marked by a covert definite article. Roberts's (2003) distinction between strong and weak familiarity is able to distinguish between these types of specific reference. Determinerless nouns occur also as plural and mass indefinites on first mention, and as nonreferential nouns, in predicate-like positions. Such bare nouns can be overtly pluralized and are in complementary distribution with overt indefinites, pointing to the presence of a covert indefinite article. This, I argue, heads NumP, like its overt counterpart.
2. The superstrate is not always the lexifier: Lingua Franca in the Barbary Coast 1530-1830
Authors: Selbach Rachel
Published: March 2014

The terms superstrate and substrate seem to lose some of their predictive force in the earliest documented European contact language. While Lingua Franca (LF) is best known for its purported origins as a trade pidgin used across all areas of the Mediterranean, the vast majority of actually available LF documents come from slave colonies on North Africa’s “Barbary Coast’’. Here, the social and the linguistic data do not synchronically coincide according to the usual creolist framework, where lexifier and superstrate are largely treated as being synonymous. Algiers held the largest prison colony where, according to contemporary reports (Haedo 1612), some 25,000 people lived, all of them speaking LF with different proficiencies. Masters in these prisons were Arab and Turkish Moslems; slaves were the captured European Christians. Most of the lexicon of LF is derived from Romance languages, therefore the bulk of the lexifier is that of the oppressed, not of the oppressor. This situation is shown in the major documents of LF, such as the 1830 Dictionnaire de la Langue Franque ou Petit Mauresque. Bakker’s principle – pidgins often do not use the lexicon of the dominant group – being borne out by available LF data, the possible (social) causes for this difference to the majority of the well-known contact languages coming out of slavery contexts will be discussed.
3. In praise of the cafeteria principle: Language mixing in Hawai'i Creole
Authors: Siegel Jeff
Published: March 2014

Bickerton (1981) argues against the influence of substrate languages in creoles, using the term “cafeteria principle” to ridicule the idea that a language could select features from various sources like items chosen for lunch at a cafeteria. However, this chapter demonstrates that several aspects of the morphosyntax of Hawai‘i Creole have been modeled on features of different substrate languages, and therefore that a certain degree of mixing has occurred. On the other hand, the cafeteria principle that is demonstrated is not without certain principles and constraints. Two mechanisms are described that account for the features of one language ending up in another: language transfer in second language use and substrate reinforcement of diffused features. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the availability constraints and reinforcement principles that go some way in explaining why some substrate features end up in a creole while others do not.
5. Vowel epenthesis and creole syllable structure
Authors: Uffmann Christian
Published: March 2014

This paper investigates the development of syllable structure in creoles. Most importantly, an analysis of vowel epenthesis in Sranan, both synchronic and diachronic, will be provided, and it will be shown that the present vowel harmony system evolved gradually from a default vowel system. The results are formalized in an optimality-theoretic analysis, and we argue that the epenthesis system is largely substrate-motivated, by comparing constraint rankings. Syllable structure constraints in other creole languages will also be discussed, and it will be shown that less radical creoles have syllable structure systems of intermediate complexity, similar to interlanguage systems. An optimality-theoretic approach to language acquisition as constraint reranking is employed to explain how such intermediate systems develop.
7. Encoding path in Mauritian Creole and Bhojpuri: Problems of language contact
Authors: Kriegel Sibylle , Ludwig Ralph , Henri Fabiola
Published: March 2014

This article explores the question of language contact between Mauritian Creole and the Indo-Aryan language Bhojpuri. Historically, contact between these two languages came about as a result of the massive immigration of Indians to Mauritius, dating from the second half of the 19th century, after the abolition of slavery. This contact situation has lasted up until present times, since Bhojpuri remains, after Mauritian Creole, the most widely used spoken language in Mauritius. Diachronically, there are at least two stages of influence: (i) Bhojpuri had some influence on Creole from the 1830s onwards, and (ii) the two languages continue to interact until today, the result of which is the possibility of even more evident diversification in the diastratic and diatopic architecture of the creole. The more general issue is narrowed down to an analysis of a particular semantic-grammatical category: ablative Path expression. In this article, we defend the hypothesis that the use of depi as an ablative marker is essentially due to Bhojpuri influence. Additionally, certain kinds of uses of depi as an ablative marker function as distinctive markers of the variety of Mauritian Creole spoken by Indians. This study draws on data from recent research carried out in Mauritius, as well as the analysis of a corpus of written texts and spoken discourse, recorded and transcribed by the authors.
8. On the principled nature of the respective contributions of substrate and superstrate languages to a creole's lexicon
Authors: Lefebvre Claire
Published: March 2014

This paper argues that the respective contributions made to creoles by their substrate and superstrate languages are principled, and that they can be derived from a sound theory of creole genesis. More specifically, it is shown that the division can be derived from the nature and extent of the main cognitive process at work in creole formation, relexification/relabelling, and from how this process applies in the contexts where creole languages emerge.
9. Valency patterns in Seychelles Creole: Where do they come from?
Authors: Michaelis Susanne Maria
Published: March 2014

In this article, I argue that with respect to five valency patterns Seychelles Creole clearly mirrors Eastern Bantu substrate patterns. These findings are particularly interesting since the received view on French Indian Ocean creoles has been so far that there has been virtually no significant substrate influence in their grammatical structures. In order to detect substrate influence, I advocate a new methodological approach in creole studies. Thanks to a bulk of typological data on the worldwide distribution of certain grammatical structures, creolists should not restrict themselves to compare one creole language to one or more potential substrate languages, but they should study creole and substrate features in the context of the worldwide distribution of these features. Only if these creole and substrate features turn out to be cross-linguistically unusual are we in a safe position to claim substrate influence.
12. Zamboangueño Chavacano and the potentive mode
Authors: Rubino Carl
Published: March 2014

This paper presents a feature of Zamboangueño unfamiliar to creole languages outside the Austronesian language area, the potentive mode. The potentive mode is a verbal mode common to neighboring indigenous languages that is used to designate abilitative actions and actions that are brought about accidentally, coincidentally, or without volition or instigation. The paper details the morphology associated with the stative and potentive modes in neighbouring Visayan languages, and illustrates the restricted uses of the same affixes in Zamboangueño. Finally, it gives a detailed account of a periphrastic construction, involving the abilitative verbpuede ‘can, able to’ to show how this unique creole language has faithfully preserved the semantics of the potentive mode by a rather innovative means.
13. Between contact and internal development: Towards a multi-layered explanation for the development of the TMA system in the creoles of Suriname
Authors: Migge Bettina , Goury Laurence
Published: March 2014

This paper proposes a new analysis of the formation of the tense-mood-aspect (TMA) system of the Surinamese Maroon creoles based on a wide range of both contemporary and historical sources. The paper first provides a brief synopsis of the socio-historical context in which the creoles of Suriname emerged and developed, and a broad overview of the TMA systems of those creoles and of varieties of Gbe. It then discusses four processes that were involved in the emergence of the creole TMA system: substrate influence, internal change from a substrate calque, superstrate influence, and shift of form and category correlated with innovation. The paper then concludes that creole formation is to be considered as a gradual and multi-layered process (Arends 1993; Bruyn 1995), involving processes of language change that also operate in other so-called “normal” contact settings (Thomason & Kaufman 1988).
14. The formation of deverbal nouns in Vincentian Creole: Morpho-phonological and morpho-syntactic processes
Authors: Prescod Paula
Published: March 2014

This paper attests that (non-)transparent derivational processes operate in Vincentian Creole (VinC), an Atlantic creole that draws its lexicon extensively from English. We demonstrate that speakers of VinC use suffixation, conversion and phonological alternation in much the same way as the lexifier. We also establish that VinC allows for some remarkable combinations of English affixes with base forms in ways that the superstratum does not. The examples we provide show that speakers of VinC do not simply calque English affixes to VinC base words, neither do they merely transpose fossilized affixes to base forms. On the contrary, functional and phonological shifts operate with English affixes in the derivation of nouns from verbs.
Productive bimorphemic structures and the concept of gradual creolization
Authors: Baker Philip
Published: March 2014

In pidgin and creole (P/C) studies, ‘bimorphemic’ is normally associated with bimorphemic interrogatives (‘question words’). I demonstrate that these are merely part of a wider range of bimorphemic structures which play an important vocabulary-building role in P/Cs. I then discuss Arends’ (1989) concept of gradual creolization and claim that its importance lies in identifying the length of time it took P/Cs to attain grammatical consistency, during which these bimorphemic structures and many of the better known ‘typical creole features’ became established. Data from several creoles indicate that it required 150 years or more for grammatical consistency to be achieved. This suggests that ancestral languages were actively spoken alongside the emergent creole for far longer than has generally been supposed.
Change in the possessive system of French Caribbean Creole languages
Authors: Hazael-Massieux Marie-Christine
Published: March 2014

This paper explores the gradual development and stabilization of possessive constructions in the French-lexified Creoles of the Caribbean. It makes the point that, in creole formation, these languages reassign grammatical functions to material borrowed from several sources; therefore, from a grammatical point of view, Creoles cannot be said to be descendants of their lexifiers. Historical texts often allow us to map the diachronic development of these new grammatical systems, as exemplified here for the possessive systems of the French Creoles of the Caribbean. It is significant that, while sources from the region (18th century onwards) initially document the co-occurrence of two different possessive constructions (viz. N+a+personal marker, and N+personal marker) in seemingly free variation, the modern Creoles have now settled for one of the two variants. The observation of this relatively late grammatical development ties in with Jacques Arends’ cautionary remarks that modern Creole data cannot be taken to represent the state of the language at the moment of its creation.
The origin and development of possibility in the creoles of Suriname
Authors: Migge Bettina , Winford Donald
Published: March 2014

In this paper we discuss the origin and development of the expression of possibility in the creoles of Suriname. We first describe the systems of possibility in Sranan and three Maroon creoles (Ndyuka, Pamaka, and Saamaka), drawing on data elicited from informants, conversational data, as well as the published literature. We examine several modal elements, namely sa, kan, man, poy, whose distribution differs across the different varieties and also over time. Our analysis reveals that the system of possibility in Sranan is organized quite differently from that of the Maroon creoles. To explain these facts, we trace the development of this area of grammar by drawing on historical data from the early Sranan and Saamaka texts, and by exploring possible influence from the Gbe substrate languages as well as Dutch. We argue that the overall structure of this subsystem in the Maroon creoles was broadly modelled on Gbe while the rather different system found in Sranan Tongo is due primarily to influence from Dutch, and to internal developments.
The Saramaccan lexicon: Verbs
Authors: Bakker Peter
Published: March 2014

In this paper the inventory of verbs of Saramaccan Creole is investigated. Saramaccan is a lexically mixed creole, with mostly English and Portuguese lexicon. Even though it has been shown earlier that the Portuguese elements were superimposed on a preexisting English frame (Smith 1987), more verbs are from Portuguese than from English. Furthermore, there are a number of doublets: Two (near) synonomous verbs from the languages have found their way into the language. In addition, significantly higher numbers of frequent verbs from English than from Portuguese have found their way into Saramaccan. An attempt is made to derive conclusions about the diachronic aspects of these findings. The tentative results confirm an intrusion of Portuguese elements into English.
Gradualism in the transfer of tone spread rules in Saramaccan
Authors: Kramer Marvin
Published: March 2014

High tone spreads rightward in certain serial verb constructions in Saramaccan, parallel to the rightward spread of high tone in Fongbe, suggesting transfer. Saramaccan rightward spread contrasts with the default leftward spread, suggesting the independent transfer of serial verb constructions. Rightward spread overrides the default leftward spread. High tone spread for quantifiers in Saramaccan contrasts with serial verb and default rules, and resembles tonal phenomena in Kikongo quantifier phrases, again suggesting independent transfer. The quantifier tone spread rules override both the serial verb and the default tone spread rules. Particular tone spread rules for different syntactic domains imply incorporation of those rules at different times, which is supported by demographic data where a period well into the formation of Saramaccan is followed by a period of dominance by Fongbe and then Kikongo speakers.
Lingua Franca in West Africa? An evaluation of the sociohistorical and metalinguistic evidence
Authors: Huber Magnus
Published: March 2014

This article investigates the nature of 15th - 18th century Afro-European linguistic contacts on the Lower Guinea Coast of Africa with the aim of establishing whether the Portuguese could have spread the Mediterranean Lingua Franca to Lower Guinea. There is solid evidence that a Portuguese-lexified contact language, referred to as ‘(broken) Portuguese’ and/or ‘Lingua Franca’ in historical sources, was used as a trade pidgin in West Africa until the second half of the 18th century. I will argue that interpreting these terms as referring to two distinct but gradually converging varieties, a locally formed Pidgin Portuguese and an offshoot of the Mediterranean Lingua Franca, is consistent with the historical evidence. The question of gradual structural expansion and creolization of West African Pidgin Portuguese will also be addressed.
The formation of the Portuguese-based Creoles: Gradual or abrupt?
Authors: Ladhams John
Published: March 2014

Some years ago, Arends pointed out that little was known about the gradual development – or otherwise – of the Portuguese-based Creoles, despite the existence of some early texts. The situation has changed very little, and this article attempts to redress the balance by examining both the linguistic evidence through early texts, as listed in the appendix, and the available socio-historical data. For most of the Portuguese-based Creoles, early linguistic evidence is lacking, and any assessment of the gradual nature of the Creoles’ development must be made largely through the historical data. The tentative conclusions drawn are that development was not gradual, particularly because nativisation took place early on, and there was no extended period of imports to renew the slave population, which would have had linguistic consequences, as is the case with the Indian Ocean French-based Creoles, for example.
English-speaking in early Surinam?
Authors: Smith Norval
Published: March 2014

I assess the opportunities of English-learning for slaves in early Surinam. Under the gradualist approach no creole could develop until the population balance had shifted significantly in favour of the slaves. With the population figures given by Arends for the years 1675, 1684 and 1695, I calculate that a third of the population could still be English-speaking in 1684 suggesting no prior creolization. However Sranan has to have creolized before the emergence of Saramaccan, due to their many similarities. Arends notes massive slave imports between 1680 and 1689. Price identifies the formation of the Saramaccan tribe from 1690. The figures for 1684 and 1695 reveal that more than half the slaves escaped in this period, supporting Price’s position, and favouring rapid creolization.
The demographic context of creolization in early English Jamaica, 1655-1700
Authors: Kouwenberg Silvia
Published: March 2014

Jamaica’s plantation economy was established during the final quarter of the seventeenth century, after an initial two decades during which the economy of English Jamaica was dominated by privateering, centred around the prize market established in Port Royal. Population figures for those first two decades show a low proportion of blacks to whites, as might be expected in an economy not dependent on slave labour. The demographic make-up of the island changes rapidly as sugar is established as a dominant crop during the final decades of the seventeenth century. I argue that the final quarter of the seventeenth century should be considered the formative phase of Jamaican Creole, and that ethnic diversity was characteristic of English Jamaica’s slave population from the start. I survey the linguistic models that may have been available during this time, and argue that the early black population of Jamaica may not have provided accessible models for the slaves who were to work the plantations, as there was little continuity between the black population of the pre-1675 period and the slaves who populated the sugar plantations after 1675.
Demographic factors in the formation of French Guianese Creole
Authors: Jennings William
Published: March 2014

This article responds to calls by Arends (2002) for further investigation of the historical and demographic factors in creole genesis. It examines early censuses and other archives describing French Guiana in the late seventeenth century and focuses on two principal areas in the sugar-plantation-based slave society at the time the creole arose: children and African languages. The proportion of locallyborn children is determined accurately and discussed with reference to Arends (1995), Singler (1995, 2006) and Hudson Kam (2005). The role of African languages in French Guiana contrasts strongly with Chaudenson’s hypotheses for other French colonies (1992, 2001).
Simplification of a complex part of grammar or not?
Authors: Smith Norval
Published: March 2014

In this article I attempt to approach the question of what effect the incorporation of a large number of KiKoongo vocabulary items by the creole languages of Surinam had vis-a-vis notions of simplification or complexification. So, we have the situation of a language lacking an extensive noun-class system with number marking having to absorb many words possessing such a system. An examination of the KiKoongo borrowings belonging to three classes is performed: 3/4, 5/6, 7/8. Each class appears to display a different constellation of singular and plural prefixes. 3/4 appears to represent only singular forms, either with an explicit suffix, or with no suffix. 5/6, where the KiKoongo dialect which seems to be best represented in Surinam has no explicit prefix in the singular, has a large preponderance of plural prefix forms. 7/8 has mixed results, possibly indicating KiKoongo dialect mixture. Most items occur without a prefix – presumably representing singulars, while a smaller number have explicit singular or plural prefixes. A surprisingly large number of forms display the wrong prefix. The common prefixes /ma-/ (pl.cl. 6) and /mu-/ (sg.cl. 3) seem to be involved frequently. I hypothesize that KiKoongo speakers initially used the relevant prefix in words borrowed from KiKoongo. This is however redundant given that the definite article is marked for number. Fongbe speakers would not know the correct number agreement, but would be able to recognize KiKoongo morphemes because of word length. In class 5/6 the preferred option was for a prefixed form (plural). The next stage is the loss of knowledge that KiKoongo loans contain a prefix at all. The loss of number distinctions, then gender distinctions, then parsability into discrete morphemes takes place in the lack of any meaningful function for the prefixes. The number distinctions presumably initially encoded by KiKoongo speakers would be redundant in any case. Gender distinctions play no role in the larger Surinam Creole lexica. And meaningless prefixes cease to have any role. The complexity that is lost in this corner of the lexicon never played a significant role in the creoles.
Verb allomorphy and the syntax of phases
Authors: Veenstra Tonjes
Published: March 2014

In a number of French-related creoles a distinction is made between long and short forms of verbs. We argue that the alternation is a reflex of French inflectional morphology that has survived the creolization process, showing that the result is a long-short opposition of verb forms, similar to the formal variation in the learner varieties, and therefore ultimately due to learner strategies in the acquisition of French as a second language. We further discuss the potential role of substrate and argue that the alternation started out as a phonological/prosodic phenomenon (as it basically still is in Haitian Creole). We conclude that the alternation (or verb allomorphy) can be seen as a morphological reflex of the Spell-Out domain at the vP-level.
9. Collaborative writing for the government
Authors: Janssen Daniël , van der Mast Niels
Published: March 2014

Have you ever tried to read a governmental policy issue paper? Did you enjoy reading it? Probably not. Policy papers are usually considered to be a bad read. Not because policy writers are bad writers. On the contrary. The characteristics of policy papers are the direct result of a complex process of text production, as we shall see in this chapter.
The selection of agency as a rhetorical device: Opening up the scene of dialogue through ventriloquism
Authors: Cooren François
Published: March 2014

I propose to open up the dialogic scene by showing that a dialogue is never just about discourse and language. It is also about facts, principles, passions, values, ideologies, collectives, worldviews, etc. that can (or cannot) make a difference, i.e., do something, in a given interaction. According to this approach, dialogue is one of the most important phonation devices through which a plethora of ‘things’ – which I call actants – can come to act from a distance. Showing that these actants can be rhetorically mobilized in a given interaction allows me to account for phenomena of ‘ventriloquism,’ that is, the various ways by which human interactants make certain entities (collectives, procedures, policies, ideologies, etc.) speak in their name and vice versa. We will see that this way of dislocating the dialogic scene allows us to address thoroughly the question of power and authority, a question that tends to be relatively downplayed by dialogue analysts.
Logical and rhetorical rules of debate
Authors: Cattani Adelino
Published: March 2014

The opposition ‘logic/rhetoric’ represents a fundamental cultural antagonism. Surprising as it may seem, contemporary revival of the art of rhetoric has not been primarily promoted by scholars or professional users of rhetoric but developed itself through alternative, unusual paths, such as those of epistemology, logic and science. This is the case of the theory of knowledge (Polanyi) or of the improvements brought to informal logic by Perelman and Toulmin. As far as our specific interest in rhetoric is concerned, significant contributions to the history of science as well as to the Philosophy of Science have been made (by Thomas Kuhn among many others). At the core we always find the same eternal and unresolved dilemma opposing truth to persuasion, i.e. to be true or to persuade/convince someone to believe that something is true. Persuasion and conviction are intimately connected with debate.
Rhetoric in a dialectical framework: Fallacies as derailments of strategic manoeuvring
Authors: van Eemeren Frans H. , Houtlosser Peter
Published: March 2014

The fallacies are one of the most significant research topics in the study of argumentation. After Hamblin (1970) revealed the inadequacy of the dominant Logical Standard Treatment of the fallacies, several kinds of alternative treatments have been developed. The “pragma-dialectical” alternative developed by van Eemeren and Grootendorst (1984, 1992, 2004) involves replacing the logical standard definition of fallacies as “arguments that seem valid but are not valid” by a broader communicative definition of fallacies as pragmatic argumentative moves that are “violations of dialectical rules for critical discussion”. To account for the deceptive role the fallacies may have, van Eemeren and Houtlosser (2002) have taken this approach a crucial step further by bringing in the notion of “strategic manoeuvring”: the systematic combination in argumentative discourse of the pursuit of dialectical and rhetorical. Fallacies can be analysed as derailments of legitimate ways of strategic manoeuvring that can only be identified in contextualized argumentative discourse.
Strategic use of Korean honorifics: Functions of 'partner-deference sangdae-nopim'
Authors: Cho Yongkil
Published: March 2014

From the standpoint of Weigand’s concept of ‘competence-in-performance’, I will analyse the communicative function of sangdae-nopim in conversations at Korean workplaces. The aim of this investigation is to show that in the modern Korean society speakers draw on sangdae-nopim in a more and more strategical fashion. Rather than reducing its function to the traditional value of ‘showing respect to one’s dialogue partner’, I will demonstrate how sangdae-nopim is used to mediate between both respect and selfinterest.
The rhetorical component of dialogic communication in Banks' annual reports
Authors: Mignini Marta
Published: March 2014

In this paper the concepts of dialogic interaction, of circular communication and the role of logic and emotions will receive special attention. In the first part of my manuscript I will show that banks’ annual reports are a two-way communication where two heterogeneous subjects exchange information, and feed-back from them is crucial for a success. In the second part I will focus on the coexistence of logic and rhetoric in annual reports, which have often been considered linguistically distant from everyday interaction. To do this, I will provide examples of devices like the order of elements conveying positive or negative ideas, rhetorical questions, repetitions, metaphors and appeals directed at stakeholders. The third and last part of my paper will stress the importance of emotional linguistic tools with particular reference to the concepts of “central” and “peripheral” routes to persuasion (Petty et al. 1994).