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The article discusses the debate on the ontological status of creoles and mixed languages by analyzing the Berbice Dutch language formation underlying assumptions of the two-stage genesis scenario proposed by the authors. Topics include differences between traditional languages and contact languages, including pidgins, creoles, and intertwined languages; and consequence of prior pidginhood resulting in a relative lack of grammatical complexity compared to traditional languages.

The paper makes a case for regarding Nigerian Pidgin (Naijá) and Jamaican Creole (Patois) as informal linguistic epicentres in the global English Language Complex. This requires a few modifications to current definitions of linguistic epicentres but leads to a sociolinguistically realistic and more comprehensive account of the profound influence that Jamaica and Nigeria have had on the development of Englishes in their regions and in the world at large. In the absence of large corpora, qualitative methods from linguistic ethnography and interactional sociolinguistics were used for the study of possible epicentral effects of Naijá and Patois. They allow access to speakers' language attitudes and language ideologies, a shaping factor of epicentral influences that generally deserves more attention in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the speech of 27 Trinidadian professionals (lawyers, lecturers, and politicians), who are typical speakers of Standard Trinidadian English in formal contexts, where traditionally Standard English is targeted. We investigate phonetic variation in Trinidadian English speech with regard to the varying integration of Creole features. The paper presents the results of an acoustic study of 10 vowels and an auditory analysis of three consonantal variables, using data from the Trinidad and Tobago component of the International Corpus of English. The analysis shows that exonormative influences do not play a role. Individual Trinidadian Creole features are integrated into standard speech (voiced TH-stopping, partial overlap of bath-start-trap, partial overlap of strut-lot) and some realizations are identical in both codes (face and goat), while others are avoided (voiceless TH-stopping, the realization of down with as a monophthong with a velar nasal, the cloth-thought merger, and the realization of mouth as [ɔʊ]). These results from Trinidad confirm the validity of Irvine's (2004, 2008) model of load-bearing and non load-bearing variables for the distinction between English and Creole. The conclusion highlights methodological differences to Irvine's study and discusses an extended conceptualization of Standard English that incorporates variation along the dimension of exo- versus endonormativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to further our understanding of the nature of functional features in Creoles while focusing on how the functional exponent is morphologically realized, assuming a late-insertion-based exoskeletal model in the language mixing scholarly literature. In language mixing, it is observed that words are mixed within a certain syntactic domain (e.g., DP-NP, VoiceP/vP-TP, etc.). For example, in the nominal domain, a determiner D may be from one language, and N (or a stem, e.g., root + categorizer) may originate from another language. Grimstad and Riksem propose that the functional projection FP intervenes between D and N, and both D and F are from one language and N from another language. The phonological exponent of the functional features (e.g., D and F) are assumed to be language-specific (i.e., from one language), subject to the subset principle. Closer to the case that concerns us, Åfarli and Subbarao show that through long-term language contact, functional features can be reconstituted, and the functional exponent can be genuinely innovative. In our study, we propose that functional features can be themselves recombined and that Creole languages can provide evidence for feature recombination either by virtue of their hybrid grammar or through the congruent functional categories they display, using a late-insertion-based exoskeletal model. That is, functional features are not individually inherited from one language or another but can be recombined to form new functional features, allowing a novel functional exponent. To show this, we use synchronic empirical data focusing on the anterior marker -ba from Cabo Verdean Creole (CVC), Manjako (one of CVC Mande substrates), and Portuguese (CVC lexifier) to show how the recombination may operate, as CVC -ba recombines the features it inherited from its source languages while innovating. In sum, the purpose of this study is to show that feature recombination targeting the functional categories of Creole source languages can lead to innovation and that a late-insertion exoskeletal model can best account for the novel functional exponents that result from feature recombination in Creole formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imposition, a general mechanism of contact-induced change that manifests itself in creole formation, second language acquisition, and even language attrition (Winford 2013), is a result of unequal dominance in a multilingual's languages, whereby linguistic features from an individual's more dominant language are transferred to a less dominant language (van Coetsem 1988). In order to flesh out how imposition operates in multilinguals, this study compares the differences between Singaporean Chinese and Malay speakers in their use of already in Colloquial Singapore English. Based on sociolinguistic interview data from twelve Chinese and eight Malay individuals, it is found that Chinese and Malay speakers differ primarily in two ways: (1) the preferred syntactic position for already; (2) the frequency of different contexts that already appears in. By integrating theories from cognitive linguistics and findings from psycholinguistic studies, this paper argues that 'equivalent' constructions across two grammatical systems within a multilingual's mind is a key channel through which imposition operates. To support this argument, differences between the speech of Chinese and Malay speakers are shown to be motivated by the presence or absence of 'equivalent' or parallel constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article offers information on the Sea Islands Gullah and in Sierra Leone Krio dialects of creole and the meaning of "belong," blan(t) in them. Topics discussed include the Gullah origin for Krio language, the linguistic conservatism of creole, and the regional metropolitan English language. Also mentioned is the African pronunciation of the word.

Linguists from across sub-disciplines have noted that congruence (i.e., form-function mapping) across languages in contact seems to affect acquisition and play a role in language emergence (e.g. Creole genesis). However, because congruence is often confounded with other variables (e.g., frequency, language type, speakers' proficiency levels, perceptual salience, semantic transparency), it remains unclear whether congruence per se benefits learners. In this paper, we provide an experimental test of the effects of congruence on acquisition through an artificial language-learning experiment involving English (L1) and two artificial languages (Flugerdu and Zamperese). English-speakers who identified as "native" (i.e., first-language) speakers (N = 163) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions, varying which of the three languages expressed negation with congruent forms: all three languages; only Flugerdu and Zamperese; only English and Flugerdu; or none. Our findings show that participants better acquired the negation morpheme when the form was congruent with negation in English but not when the two artificial languages alone shared a congruent form. We likewise found unanticipated spillover effects in which participants better acquired the vocabulary and grammar of the artificial languages when all three languages had congruent negation forms. These findings provide insight into the effects of congruence on language acquisition in multilingual environments and Creole language formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the cultural semantics of the personhood construct mind in Trinidadian creole. We analyze the lexical semantics of the word and explore the wider cultural meanings of the concept in contrastive comparison with the Anglo concept. Our analysis demonstrates that the Anglo concept is a cognitively oriented construct with a semantic configuration based on 'thinking' and 'knowing', whereas the Trinidadian mind is a moral concept configured around perceptions of 'good' and 'bad'. We further explore the Trinidadian moral discourse of bad mind and good mind, and articulate a set of cultural scripts for the cultural values linked with personhood in the Trinidadian context. Taking a postcolonial approach to the semantics of personhood, we critically engage with Anglo-international discourses of the mind, exposing the conceptual stranglehold of the colonial language (i.e., English) and its distorting semantic grip on global discourse. We argue that creole categories of values and personhood -- such as the Trinidadian concept of mind -- provide a new venue for critical mind studies as well as for new studies in creole semantics and cultural diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the role of English, multilingualism, translation, and the local creole Singlish of Singapore in the play "Cook a Pot of Curry," by Alfian Sa'at. It examines the play, staged at the Singapore Airlines Theatre LASALLE College of the Arts from July 3-20, 2013 as part of the Alfian Sa'at In the Spotlight Festival. It explores the role of (mis)communication between Singaporeans, immigrants to Singapore, and the People's Action Party (PAP) presented in the play.

Copyright of Lenguaje is the property of Universidad del Valle and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Pirate English has been academically overlooked and historically marginalized since its inception in the seventeenth century. Yet it was a formative variety in port settlements of the Caribbean, Europe, West Africa and the Americas and likely to have influenced creoles and dialects of littoral regions. However, there is little reliable data on which to base a diachronic analysis due to the nature of the outlaw speech community that was mostly illiterate. Given the difficulty of compiling empirical data for analysis, this paper applies a model that uses sociolinguistic and socio-historical data in order to determine hypothetical linguistic features in contact-induced dialect formation. Resulting hypotheses about the nature of Pirate English include maximal variability in the early stages a high-representation of male forms significant borrowing from non-prestigious English varieties and input from multiple adstrates of equal prestige. Findings also indicate the apparent emergence of Pirate English in the early eighteenth century through contact between young, male maritime workers and settlers in port societies that was seemingly followed by a period of intense leveling and unnatural transmission in extended communication networks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents the first attestations in Virgin Islands Creole of the diagnostic features of English-lexifier contact languages proposed by Baker and Huber (2001). It compares the distribution of these features in Virgin Islands Creole and in seven Atlantic English-lexifier pidgins and creoles. Furthermore, the features identified serve for quantifying the degree of affinity between Virgin Islands Creole and St Kitts Creole. A number of selected diagnostic features are discussed. It is shown that features typical of Eastern Caribbean creoles and those specific to Western Caribbean varieties coexist in Virgin Islands Creole. The findings contribute to the database reflecting the distribution of diagnostic features across English-lexifier contact languages as well as to a better understanding of the history of Virgin Islands Creole. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the United States and the Anglophone Caribbean, where English has been historically the dominant language, both the perception and reality of the changing nature of the language have been riddled with paradoxes. This article addresses the ways in which transnational practices between the US and the Caribbean, aided by geographic proximity, technology, social media, and of course linguistic creativity, have fueled changes in the definition, use, attitudes, and response towards Englishes in both locations, especially in schools. The paradoxes surrounding these changes include: English as at once monolithic and pluralistic; fiercely hybridized and standardized; and in the case of the Caribbean, Creole English simultaneously celebrated and denigrated. Furthermore, we see linguistic diversity increasingly celebrated in theory but English homogeneity required in practice in schools. It is suggested that such paradoxical changes offer rich possibilities for research and informed pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serial verb constructions (SVCs) are found In Creole languages and in the languages of West Africa, Southeast Asia, Amazonia, Oceania, and New Guinea. In this article we examine catenative verb constructions (CVCs) in English from a Role and Reference Grammar perspective and compare them with SVCs. More specifically, based on the set of syntactic and Semantic properties of SVCs proposed by Kroeger (2004:229-230), it will be demonstrated that CVCs in English have all of the characteristic syntactic and semantic properties of SVCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The findings for adverbs and adverbial phrases in a naturalistic corpus of Miami Haitian Creole-English code-switching show that one language, Haitian Creole, asymmetrically supplies the grammatical frame while the other language, English, asymmetrically supplies mixed lexical categories like adverbs. Traces of code-switching with an English frame and Haitian Creole lexical categories suggest that code-switching is abstractly BIDIRECTIONAL. A quantitative methodology that codes the language-indexation of the token in addition to the surrounding lexical items was used for all mixed (e.g. xYx/yXy, xYy/yXx, yYx/xXy) and unmixed (xXx/yYy) adverbs. Discourse position, especially the left-periphery, is found to be a significant factor in adverb code-switching. Sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic analyses which acknowledge the 'low' status of one language and the 'high' status of the other explain better the frequency of mixed English adverbs in a Haitian Creole frame and the rarity of mixed Haitian Creole adverbs in an English frame than a minimalist approach, such as MacSwan's (1999 and subsequent work), which uses phi-feature valuation and entails asymmetry without bidirectionality. While I provide confirmation for Myers-Scotton's (1993) Matrix Language Frame approach, I emphasize that trace bidirectional data need to be accounted for by a theory that is grounded in the sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Trinidad, English coexists with an English-based Creole in a Creole continuum. Creole could is equivalent to international Standard English can, and would to will. Previous authors have observed that the Creole exerts a strong influence on the use of these modals in Trinidadian English. This article presents a detailed analysis, based on data from the International Corpus of English, of the use of can/could and will/would in this variety. Comparisons are drawn with other varieties, especially British English. Quantitative distributions as well as uses and meanings of the modals are analyzed. It is shown that distinctions between the members of each pair of modals are not lost generally but are liable to be blurred in particular categories of uses where they are relatively weak anyway, consisting only in the degree of tentativeness or politeness implied, for example. Furthermore, the data indicate that the use of will in present habitual contexts is more prominent in Trinidadian than in British English, probably as a result of influence from the Creole marker of present habitual aspect; would is commonly used in present habitual contexts as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chapter I of the book "The Year's Work in English Studies," Volume 87, edited by William Baker and Kenneth Womack is presented. It discusses the history of English linguistics, including phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and lexicography. The concept of new Englishes and Creolistics are also presented as well as pragmatics and stylistics.

The article discusses the emergence of "Anglo-dumb German" or "Denglisch" as a leading language for German speakers and texts that is a melding of American English and German. The author notes conservatives' alarms over the demise of German and the Germanization of foreign loan words. The tone of the article is both academically ridiculing and humorous, as such verbal integrations into German as "kid" and "cool" are discussed.

This article explores intelligibility between the Jamaican vernacular, an English-based lexicon Creole language, and English. It examines discourse in pre-trial interviews conducted by functionaries in the UK criminal justice system, usually police and customs officers and lawyers, with Jamaican Creole (JC)-dominant or monolingual speakers who are typically persons suspected or accused of offences or potential witnesses of offences. Using discourse analysis techniques, it highlights instances of miscommunication and lack of comprehension not only between the parties to the interview, but also on the part of the transcribers. The analysis attempts to trace the miscommunication and lack of understanding to linguistic distinctions between the two language varieties. The paper also explores the possible legal consequences of these language-related miscommunications or lack of communication. The analysis underscores the need for continuous interpretation during pre-trial interviews and for interpretation/translation services at the transcription stage despite some similarity between the two languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The status of Gullah and Bahamian Creole English (BahCE) within the Atlantic English creoles and their historical relationship with African American Vernacular English (AAVE) have long been a matter of discussion. It was assumed that Gullah and BahCE are ‘sister’ varieties sharing an immediate ancestor in the eighteenth-century creole English spoken on plantations in the American South. We present historical and linguistic data, including a statistical analysis of 253 phonological, lexical, and grammatical features found in eight Atlantic English creoles, to show that Gullah and BahCE are indeed closely related — so closely in fact that BahCE must be considered a ‘diaspora variety’ not of AAVE but of Gullah. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jamaica now is decisively a product of the clash of two powerful cultures , English culture at the height of its imperialist thrust and the West African Ashanti kingdom at the pinnacle of its might and power. Under three hundred years of British colonial rule, the English language became part of a cluster of symbols of British cultural superiority and might. Jamaican Creole remained among the symbols of lower status, cultural inferiority, powerlessness. The ability to use English establishes identity in the public domain and has profound implications for the capacity of people to develop themselves personally, to function in professional environments. Yet in the CXC English Language examinations, launched in June 1979, up to 2002, fewer than half of Jamaican candidates have received a passing grade, even accounting for the fact that Grade Three is now considered a passing grade. Standard Jamaican English is on the wane, not only in the prestige accorded to it, but also in the success with which it is used. In many pockets of the culture, the status of Jamaican Creole has subverted and upended the status of English. There are now many spaces of public recognition, acceptance and validation for Creole speech and Creole speakers. In Jamaica we are still trying to brush away the debris of status and hierarchy attached to our two languages. The individuals in this nation do not yet have the luxury of seizing language as a neutral psycho cultural tool, as a mechanism to create through words, feelings, statements, attitudes and values that produce confidence, self-esteem. I describe in this paper an attempt to incorporate drama strategies into my language arts classroom in an attempt to generate practice in creating form, content, and internal validation in the use of English and Jamaican linguistic structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the development of English two member onset ##sC clusters in Haitian Creole-English bilingual children. The subjects are 40 Haitian Creole-English bilingual children, between the ages of 3;1  --  4;11. The fundamental question is whether sonority can account for any subgrouping of ##sC clusters in phonological development, and if not, to determine what the governing patterns are in subjects renditions. Results were examined in terms of correct and incorrect renditions, implicational relationships, possible groupings according to the quality of C2, as well as comparisons to productions from monolingual English speaking children. Sonority sequencing is found to be relevant in most productions and the reduction patterns were in accordance with the predictions of the ''factorial typology'' and the ''headedness framework''. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines data gathered via fieldwork from St Eustatius, an island in the Dutch Caribbean. This English variety displays a handful of correspondences with other Englishes spoken in geographically proximate areas, but what is most noteworthy about this restructured English is that so much of its grammar is significantly different from many of those same nearby varieties. Historical, linguistic, and ethnographic data are interwoven to make the case that Statian English sounds different from most other Englishes of the Caribbean basin because the colonizing and settlement patterns of the island differed from plantation societies focusing on the production of cash crops. St Eustatius was a commercial center instead, offering an entrepôt for goods (and, at times, slaves) for sale to customers from the eastern rim of the Americas. In this import-export context, English as a lingua franca of trade emerged with its own distinctive cluster of features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zero copula is a feature of English-based creoles which has figured in the African American Vernacular English (AAVE) origins debate. While much attention has been paid to the effects of the following grammatical category, the lack of a comparative base highlights the need for more quantitative studies in the Caribbean. We analyze zero copula on the eastern Caribbean island of Bequia, where a mesolectal creole variety coexists with a nonstandard English variety. Our results show that the relative ordering of factors within the following grammatical category is parallel in the two varieties, but predicate adjectives are treated differently. We suggest reconsidering the inference of a creole origin for zero copula in AAVE on the basis of the following grammatical category and reevaluating the theoretical notion of the creole continuum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twelve languages — including the two prestigious colonial languages, English and French, a French-based Creole and 'ancestral' languages, such as Hindi and Mandarin — are spoken on the multiethnic island Mauritius. Given the multilingual and multiethnic nature of the nation, linguistic practices are an important way for Mauritians to assert or construct their identities. The linguistic diversity of Mauritius has been considered in various censuses. The 2000 census questionnaire contained sections concerning 'linguistic group', 'language usually spoken in the home' and 'literacy'. In this paper, the 2000 census language tables related to 'linguistic group' and 'language usually spoken in the home' are discussed with reference to the current linguistic situation. The growing importance of Creole as both the language of the forefathers and the language usually spoken at home is discussed. The relatively important presence of English and French and the decreasing everyday use of Asian languages are highlighted. The final section of this paper suggests directions for further research on the language tables in the 2000 Population Census. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some notes and comments on the English usage of Trinidad and Tobago. The paper argues that for Trinidadians to think in terms of speaking and owning ‘only’ their distinctive Creole, setting aside their long-established indigenous variety of Standard English as if not really their own, is a complex distortion of social and linguistic reality. The reality has emerged from social, cultural, and psychological factors present in the Anglophone Caribbean at large, includes both conventional English and the Creole with which it inter-operates on a daily basis, and is an issue that stands in need of a positive revision that acknowledges the islands' dual inheritance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the range of Creole and Standard English tense-aspect markers used by men and women at two age levels in the island of Tobago in the southern Caribbean. People aged 70 and over, and people aged 16-21 were compared on critical social variables and interviews were designed to tap their full range of communicative competence. The educated young people evidenced low usage of Standard English relative to the older group. In addition, all the young people showed evidence of focusing on new mesolectal norms for public use. In contrast, older more educated speakers favoured the acrolect as their public variety while the least educated manual workers disfavoured mesolectal marking. The study is not taken to suggest a directionality of language change for the whole society because differences suggest themselves to be age and circumstance specific. It indicates, however, that we may have overestimated the extent to which norms are shared in any given Caribbean sociolinguistic complex and may have overestimated the trend to standardization in present day societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The earliest attestations of pronouns that deviate significantly from the English system are listed for thirteen English-lexicon contact languages spoken around the world. What these forms tell us about the nature of pidgin and creole genesis' is then investigated, including the question of why deviant forms were used at all. Although most of these new FORMS can readily be derived from English, we argue that their new FUNCTIONS cannot, since these were not established characteristics of English dialects. Examination of the relevant non-European languages also suggests that they influence few of these new Junctions. After investigating other factors that may have favored the selection of deviant forms phonological form, frequency and saliency, disambiguity, and semantic transparency we conclude that the single most significant factor explaining the use of oblique forms in subject position is that Europeans typically used these forms to accompany pointing gestures. Much of the new pronominal systems can thus be explained by the behavior of anglophones in the initial contact situation. We further conclude that Europeans used a special repertoire in their contacts with non-Europeans but consider that this was an inventory of lexical items and pragmatic strategies rather than an established "nautical jargon." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study that examined the attitudes of teachers to the linguistic situation in Trinidad and Tobago. It seems clear that most respondents were not at all conscious of the fact that the Creole variety of Trinidadian English has its own grammatical system which operates according to different rules from those of Standard English. Informants generally show a great willingness to interpret what are essentially grammatically correct Creole structures as corruption of good English. The implication of this for educationalists is that they are also quite unaware of the real nature of the problem involved in the acquisition of standard language skills by Trinidadian children. Most respondents said that their speech was well liked in their own communities but offered no comment on attitudes to their speech in other communities. Few respondents pointed out acceptance of their speech depended on the variety they chose and the people they spoke to and said that they varied they speech accordingly. From the point of view of the educationist at least one significant possibility has emerged from the study, that the social value attached to varieties of English in Creole communities must be regarded as substantially different from those which obtain in more usual dialect situations.

A correction to the article "The Obstruent Inventory of Roper Kriol," by B. Baker, R. Bundgaard-Nielsen, and S. Graetzer that was published in the 2014 issue is presented.