bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On the Phonology and Orthography of Jamaican Creole
Authors: Meade Rocky R.
Published: November 2010

In the following, it will be demonstrated that the orthography devised by Cassidy for Jamaican Creole1 is upheld under a reevaluation in the context of present day generative phonology. In this respect, modifications proposed by Devonish and Seiler (1991) will be argued against. The analysis focuses primarily on the distribution of vowel phonemes in Jamaican Creole in relation to its orthography.
It Happened at Cormantin
Authors: McWhorter John
Published: November 2010

Comparative and sociohistorical facts suggest that Sranan arose among castle slaves on the Gold Coast in the 1630s. Jamaican Maroon Spirit Language is an offshoot of early Sranan, which allows the deduction that créole English had developed in Suriname by 1671. However, during the English hegemony there, 1651-1667, Suriname harbored only small plantations, where Whites worked closely with equal numbers of Blacks. Such conditions were unlikely to produce Sranan, and conditions in other English colonies were similar, disallowing them as possible sources of importation. Disproportionate lexical and structural influence from Lower Guinea Coast languages, and other evidence, suggests that the language actually took shape on the West African coast.
Plural Marking Patterns in Nigerian Pidgin English
Authors: Tagliamonte Sali A. , Poplack Shana , Eze Ejike
Published: November 2010

This paper examines the pluralization system of Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE). Extrapolating from proposals in the literature on English-based créoles as well as other vernaculars, we utilize quantitative methodology to assess the contribution of syntactic, semantic, and phonological features to variability in plural marking.
Although the English plural marker -s is most robust in the data, its patterning reflects neither English grammar nor a conventional functionalist distribution. Instead, surface variability in NPE is conditioned by two factors: animacy and nominal reference. Our findings suggest that these are substratal features whose effects are sensitive to speaker position on the créole continuum. This is strong empirical confirmation that the grammar underlying variable linguistic elements may be inferred from the distribution and conditioning of surface variants, even when none of them originate from that grammar.
Multifunctionality and Variation Among Grammars
Authors: Lefebvre Claire
Published: November 2010

A multifunctional item is a lexical item that has more than one function. This paper argues that the determiner of Haitian and Fongbe is a multifunctional head. It can appear as the head of several functional category projections, namely, DP, MoodP, TP, and AspP. Given the Projection Principle, how can a single functional item appear as the head of different functional category projections? My account of the multifunctional character of such functional items is twofold. First, multifunctional heads lack categorial features. Second, the category of the projection of a multifunctional head is determined by its complements. It is expected that a multifunctional item will be the object of variation among speakers. The data analyzed in this paper are drawn from a sample of speakers of both languages. Two clear patterns emerge which I will refer to as grammar 1 (which includes speakers of both Haitian and Fongbe) and grammar 2 (which also includes speakers of both Haitian and Fongbe). The striking fact about these data is that the same cluster of properties distinguish grammar 1 from grammar 2 in both Haitian and Fongbe.
Transfer Constraints and Substrate Influence in Melanesian Pidgin
Authors: Siegel Jeff
Published: November 2010

This study examines research on transfer in second language acquisition (SLA) in order to identify situational and linguistic factors which may constrain the influence of substrate languages on the developing grammar of a pidgin or creole. A distinction is made between the earlier transfer of L1 features by individuals attempting to use the superstrate language as an L2 for wider communication, and the later retention of a subset of these features by the community during a process of leveling which occurs during stabilization. The study outlines various transfer constraints and reinforcement principles proposed in both the second language acquisition and pidgin/creole studies literature. These are evaluated using Melanesian Pidgin and its Central-Eastern Oceanic (CEO) substrate languages as a test case. Of the potential constraints on transfer proposed in the SLA literature, the need for partial or specious congruence between superstrate and substrate structures appears to account best for the particular CEO features that were transferred. Perceptual salience accounts for the kinds of forms from English that were reanalyzed to fit CEO patterns. With regard to the retention of particular transferred features, the most significant reinforcement principle appears to be frequency in the contact environment.
Tone Sandhi in Saramaccan
Authors: Ham William H.
Published: November 2010

This paper examines high tone sandhi in Saramaccan, an Atlantic creole spoken in the Surinamese interior, as described by Voorhoeve (1961) and Rountree (1972a). In particular, a comparison is drawn with a similar tonal phenomenon in the Anlo dialect of Ewe (Ghana: Western Gbe) as reported by Clements (1978). Tone sandhi domains in both languages are argued to be delineated by the left edges of maximal projection edges in the syntax. Cross-linguistic work on edge-based mapping relations between syntax and phonology (e.g., Clements, 1978; Selkirk, 1986; Chen, 1987; Odden, 1987) has shown that the shape as well as the use of syntactically-derived prosodic domains varies widely. Similarities as well as differences between Anlo Ewe and Saramaccan tone sandhi environments are examined in light of the sub-stratist and universalist hypotheses of creole genesis, leading to the conclusion that a less polemic view, such as that suggested by Mufwene (1986), provides the best account.
Looking Beyond Decreolization as an Explanatory Model of Language Change in Creole-Speaking Communities
Authors: Aceto Michael
Published: November 2010

This paper discusses internally-motivated change as a largely ignored factor in understanding diachrony in creole languages: that is, externally-motivated models — and the most popular of these is certainly decreolization and the related concept of the creole continuum — have been nearly exclusively relied upon by creolists to explain phenomena associated with language variation and change in creole-speaking communities, particularly among the Atlantic English-derived creoles. This paper presents one alternative to viewing variation data derived from creole speakers as solely a function of decreolization. It raises issues associated with (and explores alternatives to) that singular view of diachrony.
Passive in Jamaican Creole
Authors: LaCharité Darlene , Wellington Jean
Published: November 2010

Because Jamaican Creole lacks the familiar morphological indicators of the passive that characterize English, its lexifier language, it has sometimes been assumed that Jamaican either lacks a passive, or that its passive is fundamentally different from that of English. However, a Government and Binding analysis explicitly shows that Jamaican Creole has a passive and that it is formed, syntactically, in the same way as morphologically signaled passives, including that of English. The conclusion is that there is, indeed, a passive morpheme in Jamaican Creole which, though devoid of phonetic content, behaves the same as the overt passive morphemes of other languages.
Verse Analysis and the Nature of Creole Discourse
Authors: Masuda Hirokuni
Published: November 2010

This research applies Verse Analysis to the study of creole languages seeking evidence to support the two principal theories: universalist and sub-stratist theories. Evidence is presented from Hawaii Creole English (HCE), Guyanese Creole, and Japanese. HCE manifests in discourse a possibly universal feature of patterning (i.e., hierarchical grammatico-semantic recurrence), which is shared by Guyanese Creole as well as Chinook Jargon and quite a few Native American languages. On the other hand, HCE also shows an idiosyncratic phenomenon of numbering (i.e., doublets, triplets, quadruplets, etc., in lines and verses), which appears to have been linguistically transferred from Japanese as a substratum. Linguistic data, sociohistorical facts, and a scenario of substratum transfer are presented. This research reinforces a hypothesis that both internal innate properties and external substratal factors need to be taken into account to explain the origin of creole discourse grammar.
Cant a Sen Vargonya
Authors: Jackson Kenneth David
Published: November 2010

This study analyzes the oral traditions of Sri Lanka Creole Portuguese as a syncretism of European, African, and Asian sources, evidenced in literary themes, linguistic practice, and cultural traditions. Resulting musical, dramatic, and textual practices play a central role in defining tradition and maintaining group identity in the creole communities. Both the co-existence and the interrelationship of oral texts establish traditions which contribute to a system of creole culture that spread throughout Asia. References are primarily to Sri Lankan and Indian materials collected by scholars in the late nineteenth century and during my field work in the 1970s and 1980s. Sri Lankan verses refer to the east coast Burghers of Bat-ticaloa and Trincomalee and to the Kaffirs of Puttalam. This study also presents for the first time a unique source for data and comparative analysis from the H. Nevill collection at the British Library, which is an extensive manuscript of Sri Lankan Creole texts from the 1870s or 1880s written in Dutch orthography and including material subsequently published by Schuchardt, Dalgado, and others. The theoretical focus concerns the translation of European, African, and Asian materials into a Eurasian discourse that displaces the originals, creating a new textual system of Portuguese Creole oral materials in Asia. The texts that give definition to creole culture have proved remarkably persistent, surviving in Sri Lanka from the seventeenth century to the present.
The City, The Mesolect, and Innovation
Authors: Singler John Victor
Published: November 2010

Change in a creole or pidgin continuum is like linguistic change elsewhere: innovations that are identified with speakers who bear prestige are likely to spread, while innovations identified with speakers who do not bear prestige are not. In the case of the continuum that spans Liberian English (from pidgin to standard), the greatest prestige is assigned to acrolectal speakers, and decreolizing changes are the most frequent type. However, the urban mesolect has emerged as a secondary locus of prestige. Nonde-creolizing innovations that have arisen among speakers of this variety thus have the potential to spread, first to the rural mesolect, then to the two (rural) Liberian basilects. Four innovations, each at a different stage of diffusion, are examined, two involving feni (<finish) and two involving besne (<business).
Historical Developments in Chinese Pidgin English and the Nature of the Relationships Between the Various Pidgin Englishes of the Pacific Region
Authors: Baker Philip
Published: November 2010

The development of pronouns, copulas, and other key features of Chinese Pidgin English (CPE) is traced from 1743 onwards. Major grammatical and lexical changes in the early 19th century are found to coincide with the period when foreigners were increasingly allowed to reside in Canton instead of merely being tolerated as transient visitors. The resulting continuity of interaction between Chinese and non-Chinese is seen as the catalyst for these developments in CPE.
First attestations of 34 key features in CPE are compared with their earliest occurrence (if any) in more than a dozen Pacific varieties of Pidgin English (PPE). It is shown that none of the latter can possibly be a "direct descendant" of CPE. While four features exclusively shared by CPE and PPE indicate a modest degree of CPE influence on PPE, it is suggested that three key features of PPE, found only sporadically and/or tardily in CPE, provide evidence of some hitherto unsuspected influence of PPE on CPE. In the course of the above it is noted that most of the CPE features which also occur in three or more varieties of PPE have their earliest PPE attestation in New South Wales, the only Pacific territory in which there was continuity of interaction (in this case between Aborigines and whites) from the outset, and it is claimed that this social circumstance favors both the expansion and stabilization of a pidgin. Data from early Australian Pidgin English are presented showing that it includes the earliest known attestations of a number of features generally associated with PPE of the islands of the Southwest Pacific. This leads to the claim that New South Wales Pidgin English was a far more important influence on the PPE of those islands than what has often been termed "South Sea Jargon." After reviewing the linguistic implications of the labor trade which took many Pacific islanders to work on plantations in Queensland, Samoa, and elsewhere, it is claimed that the interrelationships between the many varieties of Pidgin English spoken, currently or formerly, in the vast area from China to Hawaii to the Marquesas to Australia and back to China cannot adequately be represented by means of "family tree" type diagrams.
Topic Structures As Language Universals
Authors: Escure Geneviève
Published: November 2010

The continuous process of language mixing which takes place in the development of creole continua is particularly suited to favor the emergence of language universals. Topic-comment structures are found to be extensively used in English-based Caribbean basilects. Furthermore, topic prominence is also characteristic of the mesolectal and acrolectal va-rieties acquired by native speakers of creole vernaculars. Topic strategies are identified as they occur throughout the continuum, and in particular as they extend to other structures. More specifically, dislocation strategies are found to spread relativization through the circuitous route of relexified topic particles. It is argued that if there is a "bioprogram" (Bickerton 1981), it might be reflected not only in creole grammars, but also, and perhaps more extensively still, in the strategies represented in the contigu-ous acrolects, as well as in other situations involving conflicting linguistic systems.
The Copula in Vernacular Negerhollands
Authors: Sabino Robin
Published: November 2010

Using the texts collected by J.B.P. de Josselin de Jong as a data base, the paper describes the linguistic conditioning associated with copula forms in Negerhollands, a Dutch-lexicon Creole which was once spoken in what are now the U.S. Virgin Islands. Seven copula forms are identified: wees, bi, bin, bee, mi, a, and zero. The findings suggest that Negerhollands is similar to several other creoles in that there is a tripartite copula in the present tense; however, it is also shown that the Negerhollands copula differs from previously described language varieties.
Haitian Creole Syntax
Authors: Lefebvre Claire , Massam Diane
Published: November 2010

In this paper we examine several aspects of Haitian Creole syntax in light of the recent proposal that a determiner can be the head of a minor maximal projection. We argue that an incorporation of this proposal into the analysis of several aspects of Haitian Creole syntax, including clause structure, question formation, and relative-clause formation, can resolve several puzzling problems. In addition, the paper adds to the theory of minor heads in that it shows that such heads must be considered to inherit major category features from their complements.
The Experimental Creation of a Pidgin Language
Authors: Master Peter , Schumann John H. , Sokolik M.E.
Published: November 2010

Over the past two years several research projects have been undertaken within the Applied Linguistics Program at UCLA to examine the early stages of pidginization. The idea was to create experimentally a pidgin language by having subjects memorize 250 words of a language they did not know and communicate with that lexicon for approximately 40 hours. A German Pidgin and a Farsi Pidgin were created. The experiments and subsequent analyses provided information on the origin and development of the lexicon, deictic systems, and syntax in early pidginization.
Mauritian Creole Reflexives
Authors: Carden Guy , Stewart William A.
Published: November 2010

Present-day Mauritian Creole has a complex reflexive system with the typologically interesting property that plain pronouns are unmarked for reflexivity [uR]. Corne (1988) describes this system, and argues that the [uR] pronouns developed late, as a result of French influence after the creole had jelled. We propose instead that the [uR] use of the pronouns developed during pidginization to fill a functional gap when the French clitics were lost. Early attestations of [uR] pronouns in Mauritian and comparative evidence from Seychelles Creole converge to support an early development of [uR] pronouns. Our proposal that the early development took place during pidginization is indirectly supported by cross-linguistic evidence: [uR] pronouns appear to be common in pidgins and Creoles, but rare elsewhere, suggesting that [uR] pronouns are one characteristic result of the pidginization process.
Seselwa Serialization and its Significance
Authors: Bickerton Derek
Published: November 2010

Hitherto it has been believed that serial verb constructions were not found in the French Creoles of the Indian Ocean. In fact, there exists a wide variety of such constructions in both Morisyen and Seselwa; extensive examples from Seselwa are provided. However, for less basilectal speakers, such constructions must carry on each verb a tense marker which is identical to that on the matrix verb. This fact, together with the misanalysis of Seselwa i as a reprise pronoun, served to disguise the nature of Seselwa serials. The data surveyed has significant consequences for future studies of creoles and for theories of creole origins.
Say, C'Est, And Subordinate Constructions in Melanesian Pidgin
Authors: Crowley Terry
Published: November 2010

Melanesian Pidgin is a cover term for closely related varieties of the English-lexifier Pacific Pidgin that is spoken in Vanuatu (where it is known as Bislama), Papua New Guinea (where it is known as Tok Pisin), and Solomon Islands (where it is known as Pijin). Structurally and lexically, Bislama is closer to Solomon Islands Pijin than either is to Tok Pisin. The precise nature of many of the structural differences between these three varieties of Melanesian Pidgin has not been widely described, partly because Bislama, and particularly Solomon Islands Pijin, are relatively little described in the literature. This paper aims to describe one grammatical feature which differentiates these three varieties. The grammatical feature that is the subject of this paper is the form se. It carries a particularly high functional load in Bislama. The same form is also present in Solomons Pijin, though in this variety of Melanesian Pidgin, it has a sharply reduced functional load as compared with Bislama. On the other hand, in most current varieties of Tok Pisin, it is almost completely absent. In those varieties of Tok Pisin in which it is present, its status as a genuinely independent grammatical or lexical item is questionable. This paper will also go somewhat beyond a straightforward structural description of se in Melanesian Pidgin, as it will also reconstruct its history in the three varieties of the language. The paper will concentrate on Bislama, as it is in this variety of the language that the form se is most widely used.
Complementizer, Verb, or Both? Kriyol Kuma
Authors: Kihm Alain
Published: November 2010

So-called "pseudo-complementizers," i.e., complementizers that are homophonous with a verb meaning 'say', are a widespread feature among creole (and some noncreole) languages. Kriyol kuma belongs to this category. The homophony thesis is criticized, and it is argued that kuma is a verb in all of its uses. When in a Comp-like position, it is analyzed as a gerund in an intermediate clause that is a matrix for the lowest clause. Because of its lexical specifications (strict intransitivity), kuma must move into its own Comp whenever the lowest clause is selected and has to be 0-marked by the verb of the highest clause. A structure results that is superficially indistinguishable from an ordinary embedding configuration.
Thomas Paul's Sametl
Authors: Hymes Dell H.
Published: November 2010

A pidgin may share with other languages patterning of narrative in lines and groups of lines (verses). Chinook Jargon texts show patterns of the same kind as found in the speakers' respective Indian languages. A Saanich Salish jargon text is examined in detail, and its cultural and aesthetic interest pointed out, as well as its contribution to a general analysis of travel and outcome in Indian narratives. The recurrence in languages, including pidgins and creoles, of just a few alternative types of ethnopoetic patterning suggests an innate basis, but a functional explanation cannot be ruled out.
Pidgin English in Nauru
Authors: Siegel Jeff
Published: November 2010

This article reports on a preliminary study of an English-lexifier Pidgin spoken on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru. This pidgin has distinctive features of both Chinese Pidgin English and Pacific Pidgin English, as well as many unique characteristics. Socio-historical information shows that these two forms of Pidgin English have come into contact in Nauru and the data suggests that pidgin mixing, a form of koineization, has occurred. The linguistic consequences of such a mixture are similar to those of the mixing of other linguistic subsystems such as regional dialects. The data also supports observations about the problems of genetic classification and the significance of mixing in tracing the development of pidgins in the Pacific and other areas.
On the Supposed "Gradualness" of Creole Development
Authors: Bickerton Derek
Published: November 2010

Two recent works by Carden & Stewart (1988) and Arends (1989) have tried to prove a gradual rather than a single-generational origin for Haitian and Sranan respectively. Both arguments, however, are severely flawed. The Carden-Stewart argument from Haitian reflexivization is shown to depend on misinterpretations of both bioprogram theory and generative principles. Further, their claim that early Haitian was not a full language would entail that Middle English (among others) was also not a full language. Arends' claims of radical diachronic change in Sranan involve treating as an early creole sample a fragmentary text which, given the social and historical context of seventeenth-century Suriname, was most probably produced by a second-language learner of the creole. Reanalysis of Arends' data shows that he exaggerates the significance of marginal forms and mistakenly treats the inherent variability characteristic of all languages as evidence for ongoing change. In fact, none of the data reviewed in these works is inconsistent with the emergence of Haitian and Sranan as full languages in a single generation.
The Creole of Mon Louis Island, Alabama, and the Louisiana Connection
Authors: Marshall Margaret M.
Published: November 2010

Louisiana French Creole (LFC) has clearly been undergoing decreoli-zation in the twentieth century; its exact nature is difficult to determine, since the only evidence from the previous century available up to now has come from literary texts of that time. Language data was elicited from elderly informants whose parents were the last monolingual creole speakers living in the vicinity of Mobile, Alabama. Since communication between the speakers of New Orleans Creole and Mobile Creole was quite commonplace, Mon Louis Island Creole (MLIC) represents new evidence relating to nineteenth century LFC.
This study presents an analysis of the MLIC and LFC noun phrase and verb phrase. Mon Louis Island (MLI) speakers use two-stem verbs which are not attested in nineteenth century LFC texts. On the other hand, there are developments in LFC, such as preposed definite articles, that were not documented in MLIC. Thus, the MLIC data might help distinguish the features already present in the nineteenth century from those which represent more recent changes in LFC.
Substratal Influence in Saramaccan Serial Verb Constructions
Authors: McWhorter John
Published: November 2010

Bickerton's bioprogram hypothesis uses serial verbs as a primary demonstration that Saramaccan represents the closest approximation to Universal Grammar extant, judging from the fact that speakers of mutually unintelligible West African languages formulated it with little contact with European languages. Closer examination of Saramaccan and its substrate languages suggests, however, that the creole is a prime demonstration of substrate influence. The uniformity of serials across the substrate languages can be shown to have provided the opportunity for compromise between the small differences in the constructions in forming the language, according to perceptual saliency relative to the languages involved. A survey of serializing language families shows that serials in Saramaccan are most similar to those in its substrate, while a survey of créoles around the world shows that serials appear in créoles with similar substrates and almost never in those with nonserializing substrates. Furthermore, the explanation of serials as compensation for missing categories in Saramaccan is belied by an evaluation of this argument as applied to prepositions, which shows that the Saramaccan system mirrors that of its substrate with limited accommodations to its superstrate.
Foreigner Talk and the Origins of Pidgin Portuguese
Authors: Clements J. Clancy
Published: November 2010

In this study it is argued that what Naro (1978) calls the Reconnaissance Language (RL) was not a pidgin language but simply an instance of foreigner talk (FT). Historical evidence is presented from which it can be reasonably inferred that Portuguese FT must have existed before the RL was purportedly formed. Moreover, it is claimed that if the Portuguese in fact taught African captives simplified Portuguese, which is not entirely supported by the facts, the strategies and patterns from which they would have drawn, to simplify their language and teach it to the Africans, arguably stem from FT strategies that already existed in Portuguese. By simply assuming that Portuguese FT strategies existed at the time of the Portuguese seaborne expansion, all the features of Naro's RL are accounted for. Consequently, positing something like an RL, i.e., a code consciously developed by the Portuguese court to teach to African captives who were prospective interpreters, becomes unnecessary.
Tense, Scope, And Spreading in Saramaccan
Authors: Byrne Francis
Published: November 2010

A unified theory is developed in this paper to account in a comprehensive way for variable tense marking patterns in the serial verb constructions found in Saramaccan, a creole language of the central interior of Suriname. The disparate patterns include verb initial marking, tense copy, and the problematic single marking on any noninitial verb in a serial string. It is argued that regardless of which tense pattern occurs in a given serial structure, there is an essential typological unity which is best explained through the interrelated processes of scope and spreading. Moreover, because Saramaccan exhausts the logical possibilities for such marking, the analysis presented here should be applicable to other serial tense marking instantiations, a claim which is discussed in relation to Ijo and Fante in latter sections of the paper.
Future and Conditional in Palenquero
Authors: Schwegler Armin
Published: November 2010

Previous research (including the recent monographs of Friedemann & Patino Rosselli 1983 and Megenney 1986) states that Palenquero (henceforth PAL) has but a single future particle — tan — and lacks overt irrealis markers to express conditionals. This paper takes issue with earlier claims by showing that this creole language in fact has an additional irrealis marker — ake or its variants k(e) — whose principal function is to signal future and conditional.
After the presentation of data, attention is focused on the syntax and origin of aké. In the course of the discussion it will become apparent that the PAL facts speak against Bickerton's well-known hypothesis about the prototypical creole tense-modality-aspect system, which is said to order preverbal morphemes as follows: tense (± anterior) + modality (±irrealis) + aspect (±durative). The final section offers a preliminary investigation into PAL modal distinctions (certain future versus probable future) which casts strong doubts on earlier assertions that PAL lacks contrastive mood differentiations. The article concludes with suggestions for further research.
Spontaneous Nasalization in the Development of Afro-Hispanic Language
Authors: Lipski John M.
Published: November 2010

Afro-Hispanic or bozal Spanish, from the sixteenth century to the early twentieth century, exhibited numerous cases of "epenthetic" nasal consonants, exemplified by Punto Rico < Puerto Rico; limbre < libre 'free'; pincueso < pescuezo 'neck'; and monosyllabic clitics such as lon < lo(s), lan < la(s), and so on. The present study, based on a comparison of Afro-Hispanic (AH) language data from a wide range of regions and time periods, provides alternative models for spontaneous nasalization. The first involves vowel nasalization, analyzed as the linking of a free (nasal) autosegment to the first available vowel of relevant words; Spanish speakers in turn reinterpreted the nasal vowels as a nasal consonant homorganic to the preceding consonant. Cases of apparent word-final nasal epenthesis, invariably involving phrase-internal clitics, resulted from prenasalization of following word-initial obstruents, a well-documented process in Afro-Iberian linguistic contacts. The preference for voiced obstruents to pre-nasalize is attributed to the lack of the normal fricative pronunciation of /b/, /d/, and /g/ in AH speech. In general, Spanish voiced obstruents are pronounced as stops only following nasals. The stop pronunciation of Pol, /d/, and /g/ by AH speakers was reinterpreted as an additional Root node, to which a floating (nasal) autosegment could be linked. AH nasalization generally seems to stem from Africans' underspecification of Spanish vowels and consonants, resulting from the precarious conditions under which Spanish was learned by speakers of various African languages.
The Creolization of Dutch
Authors: Bruyn Adrienne , Veenstra Tonjes
Published: November 2010

The aim of this article is a systematic investigation of certain grammatical aspects of three languages that came about as by-products of colonial expansion of the Dutch during the seventeenth century: Afrikaans, Negerhollands, and Berbice Dutch. The discussion is centered on three grammatical features that have played an important role either in creolis-tics or in theoretical linguistics: TMA-marking, adpositional phrases, and passive constructions. Since seventeenth-century Dutch is the common lexifier, this language is also taken into account in the overall comparison. It is shown that the three languages related to Dutch form a less homogeneous group than do some of the creoles related to English and French. The main conclusion is that while processes at work during creoli-zation do not have to be uniform and may have different outcomes, the social circumstances existing in the different contact situations constitute a significant factor in the development of the emerging contact languages.
The Article Systems of Cape Verde and São Tomé Creole Portuguese
Authors: Lucchesi Dante
Published: November 2010

In the study of article systems in creole languages, two opposing models of analysis stand out. On the one hand, Bickerton, in line with his bio-program hypothesis, proposes an article system in which there is a clearly marked distinction between the notions of specific and nonspecific reference. On the other hand, Janson explains the creole article system in terms of its transmission from the lexifier language, and its further development under the influence of the lexifier language.
The capacity of these models to account for the article systems of Cape Verde and São Tomé Creole Portuguese is examined in a number of oral texts in these two languages. One feature of the analysis stands out in particular: once a discourse item has been introduced via the indefinite article, which marks it as both specific and new, no further marking of successive occurrences of that discourse item by means of a so-called definite article is necessary or even useful. This feature partially contradicts Jan-son's account and accounts for the failure of these two creoles to conform to Bickerton's universal system. Additionally, the paper considers a number of general principals governing the formation of pidgin and creole languages and the action of specific factors in their genesis.
The Zero-Marked Verb
Authors: Tagliamonte Sali A. , Poplack Shana
Published: November 2010

This paper examines the past temporal reference system in two data sets representing "early" Black English: Sarnana and the Ex-slave Recordings, with a view to discovering the structure underlying variable use of overt verbal morphology. Extrapolating from proposals in the literature on the behavior of past temporal reference structures in known creoles, as well as in black and white vernaculars, we propose and test an analytical model based on quantitative methodology and making use of the stepwise selection procedure incorporated in a variable rule analysis. Competing hypotheses were operationalized as factors in the analysis and systematically tested on the same data set.
Perhaps the most striking result of our study is that no matter which way the data are configured, the same three factor effects obtain. These reflect general constraints on language use and language processing rather than specific creole phenomena, such as the patterning expected of a relative tense system sensitive to stativity and anteriority. These findings lead us to suggest not only that an English-like system of absolute tense marking, expressed by both marked and unmarked verbs, prevails in these materials, but also that the temporal organization of these materials is not consistent with what has been posited for creole languages.
Textual Evidence on the Nature of Early Barbadian Speech, 1676-1835
Authors: Rickford John R. , Handler Jerome S.
Published: November 2010

On the evidence of textual attestations from 1676-1835, early Barbadian English is shown to have exhibited many more nonstandard features than is generally recognized. Such features, which are commonly, if not exclusively, found in pidgins and creoles, include vowel epenthesis, paragoge and initial s-deletion processes, creole tense-modality-aspect marking, copula absence, the use of invariant no as a preverbal negative and as an emphatic positive marker, the occurrence of one as indefinite article, and a variety of morphologically unmarked pronominal forms.
The texts consist of samples of African and Afro-Barbadian speech from historical sources, including ones which linguists have not previously considered. The textual samples are examined century by century, accompanied by a detailed account of the contemporary sociohistorical setting, and interpreted in terms of known and inferred Caribbean patterns of sociolinguistic variation, both in the present and in the past. It is concluded that while early Barbadian speech comprised a range of varieties, creolelike varieties were undoubtedly a part of that range.
Parallel Concordancing and French Personal Pronouns
Authors: Kenning Marie-Madeleine
Published: November 2010

This paper is concerned with the potential contribution of parallel concordancing to the study of linguistic systems. While fully acknowledging the usefulness of monolingual concordancing, it aims to show that the strategic use of parallel concordancing can provide new and valuable insights into certain thorny issues. The example chosen is the interaction between French personal pronouns and the animate/inanimate distinction, with particular reference to the use of stressed pronouns. After a brief overview of this issue and its treatment in a number of current grammars, the paper describes various ways of exploiting the bilingual nature of parallel corpora/ concordancer s and discusses the results of different types of search. The evidence shows that stressed pronouns can have inanimate antecedents, but that this is relatively rare and mostly confined to one specific function. Parallel concordancers of the kind used in the study thus provide useful opportunities to approach problems laterally.
Processing and Directionality in German and English
Authors: Doherty Monika
Published: November 2010

The paper discusses basic aspects of a general theory of contrastive stylistics, which is taken to result from the interaction of parameterized properties of languages with universal principles of language use. Proceeding from some basic psycholinguistic assumptions about language processing, the discussion will concentrate on various problems arising from specific processing conditions in English and German. The basic claims will be exemplified by translational evidence subjected to the method of control paraphrases. The findings pertain to contrastive linguistics, translation theory and a better understanding of individual literary style.
Identifying Congruent Pragmatic Relations in Procedural Texts
Authors: Scott Donia R. , Delin Judy , Hartley Anthony F.
Published: November 2010

In this paper, we present a methodology for the contrastive analysis of comparable corpora of instructional texts in different languages. The methodology is insensitive to the fact that the texts under comparison differ widely in their semantic content, and it can be reliably applied by multiple analysts. We show the results of an empirical study of cross-linguistic variation between Portuguese, French, and English instructions which follows this methodology. Using consumer instructions for ordinary household products in the three languages, we examine expressions of the two semantic relations, generation and enablement (cf. Goldman, 1970), and their available surface syntactic expressions. We examine the role of discourse perspective, as realised by rhetorical relations such as those employed within the framework of Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST), in further narrowing down the range of choices. We demonstrate that the three languages of study tolerate different levels of ambiguity, and prefer different forms of disambiguation and pragmatic signalling, attesting to the value of empirical methods for contrastive discourse study. The analysis was conducted with the aim of informing all levels of decision, from meaning to surface syntax, in the automatic generation of sets of instructional texts in those languages.
Idioms and the Language Learner
Authors: Abdullah Khaled , Jackson Howard
Published: November 2010

This paper investigates what types of idioms are most likely to be transferred while learning a second language. The subjects of the study were 120 advanced Syrian learners of English. The comprehension of 80 English idioms was tested by a multiple-choice test and an English-into-Syrian Arabic translation test. The same idioms were also tested for production by a Syrian Arabic-into-English translation test. Results showed that learners scored higher in the comprehension and production test of cognate idioms because of positive language transfer. Language transfer had a negative effect when processing English idioms which have false cognate equivalents in Syrian Arabic. However, with English idioms that have pragmatic equivalents and those which have no Syrian equivalents at all, the factor of transfer is replaced, as a strategy, by metaphoric association and pragmatic knowledge of the world. The study concludes that the degree of similarity to a native language idiom does not necessarily help in the process of idiom comprehension or production. Meanwhile, the linguistic differences between the English idiom and the Syrian idiom do not automatically lead to problems in comprehending L2 idioms.
The Causee in Romance and Germanic Causative Constructions
Authors: Cerbasi Donato
Published: November 2010

This paper is concerned with the relationships between the semantic role 'causée' and the morphosyntactic patterns used to express it in a range of Germanic and Romance languages. We will try to show that the causee — a hybrid semantic role as it is both a patient and an agent — has special relationships with object case marking. The evidence shows that Germanic languages such as German and English, and some Romance languages such as Spanish and Portuguese, resort to positional rules to preserve the distinction between causee and true object. Other Romance languages such as Italian and French, however, obtain the same result by morphological means, especially as regards the causee. We claim that such differences can be better understood in the light of a diachronic and typological study of causative constructions in these languages.
Affected Objects in Heerlen Dutch and Romance
Authors: Cornips Leonie M.E.A. , Hulk Aafke
Published: November 2010

In this paper we show that the well known definition of affected object — as an object that is somehow altered or modified by the action expressed by the verb — is problematic with respect to middle formation, which has been claimed in the literature to be possible only with affected objects. The following puzzling facts are discussed: (i) in "plain" languages some predicates with unaffected objects may undergo middle formation whereas others may not; (ii) in "reflexive" languages some predicates with unaffected objects may undergo middle formation whereas others may not; (iii) "reflexive" languages may differ among themselves with respect to middle formation with unaffected objects. We argue that the notion of affected object has to be re-defined in terms of the aspectuality of the entire predicate.
Asymmetric bipolar resistive switching in solution-processed Pt/TiO2/W devices
Authors: Biju Kuyyadi P , Liu XinJun , Bourim El Mostafa , Kim Insung , Jung Seungjae , Siddik Manzar , Lee Joonmyoung , Hwang Hyunsang
Published: November 2010

The resistive switching characteristics of Pt/TiO2/W devices in a submicrometre via-hole structure are investigated. TiO2 film is grown by the sol–gel spin coating technique. The device exhibits reversible and reproducible bistable resistive switching with a rectifying effect. The Schottky contact at the Pt/TiO2 interface limits electron injection under reverse bias resulting in a rectification ratio of >60 at 2 V in the low-resistance state. The switching mechanism in our device can be interpreted as an anion migration-induced redox reaction at the tungsten bottom electrode (W). The rectifying effect can significantly reduce the sneak path current in a crossbar array and provide a feasible way to achieve high memory density.
Static alignment states in a bistable azimuthal nematic device with blazed grating sidewalls
Authors: Evans C R , Davidson A J , Brown C V , Mottram N J
Published: November 2010

Bistable azimuthal alignment has been produced in channels of homogeneous nematic liquid crystal with periodic grating sidewalls. The grating morphologies included a symmetric triangular profile (blaze/pitch (b/p) = 0), an asymmetric highly blazed sawtooth profile (b/p = 0.5) and profiles with different amounts of blaze asymmetry between these two extremes. The observed optical textures and the trend in the relative frequency of occurrence of the two stable states as a function of the asymmetry were in agreement with the predictions of n-director-based Frank–Oseen nematic continuum theory. A sidewall grating morphology with an intermediate degree of blaze asymmetry, b/p = 0.3, gave the highest optical contrast between the bistable states.
Heating effects of a non-equilibrium RF corona discharge in atmospheric air
Authors: Auzas F , Tardiveau P , Puech V , Makarov M , Agneray A
Published: November 2010

Electrical and thermal properties of a single electrode configuration corona discharge generated under radiofrequency high voltage inside an open air gap at pressures above 1 bar is investigated. Time-resolved imaging of the discharge shows a four-step development of the discharge at atmospheric pressure starting by streamers' inception and propagation, evolving in heating waves and stabilizing in a stationary regime until the power supply is switched off. The mean gas temperature reaches about 1700 K in tens of microseconds with electrical energy release around tens of millijoules. Heating has been attributed to ion collisions and excited species relaxation, promoted by the successive time periods of the power supply. At higher pressures, beyond 3 bar, this behaviour changes and heating occurs at the same time as the discharge propagates. It leads to hot channels which constrict near the electrode as long as the voltage pulse is applied. Temperature gets higher and saturates at 2600 K whatever the voltage and the pressure. Considering the change in the electrical energy density released within the plasma channels with pressure and voltage, temperature saturation seems to be an effect of heat confining within the channels due to pressure. The large and non-thermal plasma generated by the RF corona discharge is a very good candidate for car engine lean mixtures ignition issues.
Fabrication and charge/energy-transfer study of 4,7-bis(4-triphenylamino)benzo- 2,1,3-thiadiazole/CuPc composite films
Authors: Zhu Yuanyuan , Gu Shuangxi , Wei Xiao , Xue Minzhao , Zhang Qing , Sheng Qiaorong , Liu Yangang
Published: November 2010

Composite films of 4,7-bis(4-triphenylamino)benzo-2,1,3-thiadiazole (TBT) and copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) are fabricated via protonation-coelectrophoretic deposition from nitromethane solutions of TBT/CuPc mixture in the presence of trifluoroacetic acid as a protonation reagent. A nanospheres–nanowires interpenetrating network structure is obtained when the molar percentage of TBT is 70%. Furthermore, the existence of TBT makes α-phased CuPc be partly transformed into the β-phase, and simultaneously, CuPc disorganizes the TBT unit cells. The blue shift on the absorption edge of TBT and the significant fluorescence quenching in the composite films indicate energy/charge transfer and donor–acceptor (D–A) heterojunction formation. Then these results are proved from another point of view: the mutual overlap of absorption and emission spectra of TBT and CuPc lead to a bidirectional Förster resonance energy transfer at the interface; the molecular energy levels calculated from the results of cyclic voltammetry theoretically determine that there exist a D–A heterojunction and charge transfer from TBT to CuPc. Finally, from the investigation of the field-induced surface photovoltage spectra, it can be concluded that this charge transfer results in efficient dissociation of the photoinduced excitons in the composite films, followed by the generation of a strong photovoltage response.