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The Mauritian Creole determiner system

A historical overview
  • Diana Guillemin
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Complex Processes in New Languages
This chapter is in the book Complex Processes in New Languages

Abstract

The process of article incorporation early in the genesis of Mauritian Creole (MC) resulted in the occurrence of a bare nouns in argument positions with ambiguous interpretations between (in)definite, singular, plural and generic. A new determiner system gradually emerged, but MC continues to admit bare nouns in argument positions. It is argued in this paper that the process of article incorporation triggered a shift in noun denotation from predicative in French to argumental in MC. Like English bare plurals, MC nouns are of an argumental kind-denoting terms that do not require a determiner in argument positions. The MC singular indefinite article enn and the plural marker bann serve to cderive instances of kinds. The differential behaviour of MC count and mass nouns is attributed to the number feature which must be checked for count nouns, and provides evidence for a phonologically null definite determiner which is licensed in subject position by the specificity marker la.

Abstract

The process of article incorporation early in the genesis of Mauritian Creole (MC) resulted in the occurrence of a bare nouns in argument positions with ambiguous interpretations between (in)definite, singular, plural and generic. A new determiner system gradually emerged, but MC continues to admit bare nouns in argument positions. It is argued in this paper that the process of article incorporation triggered a shift in noun denotation from predicative in French to argumental in MC. Like English bare plurals, MC nouns are of an argumental kind-denoting terms that do not require a determiner in argument positions. The MC singular indefinite article enn and the plural marker bann serve to cderive instances of kinds. The differential behaviour of MC count and mass nouns is attributed to the number feature which must be checked for count nouns, and provides evidence for a phonologically null definite determiner which is licensed in subject position by the specificity marker la.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Simplicity, simplification, complexity and complexification 1
  5. Part I. Morpho-phonology
  6. Initial vowel agglutination in the Gulf of Guinea creoles 29
  7. Simplification of a complex part of grammar or not? 51
  8. Reducing phonological complexity and grammatical opaqueness 75
  9. Part II. Verbal morphology
  10. Verb allomorphy and the syntax of phases 99
  11. The invisible hand in creole genesis 115
  12. Complexification or regularization of paradigms 159
  13. Part III. Nominals
  14. The Mauritian Creole determiner system 173
  15. Demonstratives in Afrikaans and Cape Dutch Pidgin 201
  16. Part IV. The selection of features in complex morphology
  17. Contact, complexification and change in Mindanao Chabacano structure 223
  18. Morphosyntactic finiteness as increased complexity in a mixed negation system 243
  19. Contact language formation in evolutionary terms 265
  20. Part V. Evaluating simplification and complexification
  21. Economy, innovation and degrees of complexity in creole formation 293
  22. Competition and selection 317
  23. Complexity and the age of languages 345
  24. Part VI. Postscript
  25. Restructuring, hybridization, and complexity in language evolution 367
  26. Language index 401
  27. Subject index 405
https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.35.12gui

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Simplicity, simplification, complexity and complexification 1
  5. Part I. Morpho-phonology
  6. Initial vowel agglutination in the Gulf of Guinea creoles 29
  7. Simplification of a complex part of grammar or not? 51
  8. Reducing phonological complexity and grammatical opaqueness 75
  9. Part II. Verbal morphology
  10. Verb allomorphy and the syntax of phases 99
  11. The invisible hand in creole genesis 115
  12. Complexification or regularization of paradigms 159
  13. Part III. Nominals
  14. The Mauritian Creole determiner system 173
  15. Demonstratives in Afrikaans and Cape Dutch Pidgin 201
  16. Part IV. The selection of features in complex morphology
  17. Contact, complexification and change in Mindanao Chabacano structure 223
  18. Morphosyntactic finiteness as increased complexity in a mixed negation system 243
  19. Contact language formation in evolutionary terms 265
  20. Part V. Evaluating simplification and complexification
  21. Economy, innovation and degrees of complexity in creole formation 293
  22. Competition and selection 317
  23. Complexity and the age of languages 345
  24. Part VI. Postscript
  25. Restructuring, hybridization, and complexity in language evolution 367
  26. Language index 401
  27. Subject index 405
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