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Economy, innovation and degrees of complexity in creole formation

  • Marlyse Baptista
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Complex Processes in New Languages
This chapter is in the book Complex Processes in New Languages

Abstract

This paper explores the idea that in contact situations, there exists a process whereby so-called morpho-syntactic simplification is correlated to semantic complexification. In examining this process in the verbal and nominal domains, we show that a given morpheme may actually carry in Cape Verdean Creole (CVC) and Guinea-Bissau Creole (GBC) a cluster of semantic feature values where the European language only has one. In order to measure degrees of simplification versus complexification, this paper uses Kusters’ (2003) complexity evaluation metrics involving inflectional morphology specifically. This paper also shows to what extent two sister creoles such as CVC and GBC, assumed to have emerged from the same source languages, display similarities and distinct differences in their morphological properties.

Abstract

This paper explores the idea that in contact situations, there exists a process whereby so-called morpho-syntactic simplification is correlated to semantic complexification. In examining this process in the verbal and nominal domains, we show that a given morpheme may actually carry in Cape Verdean Creole (CVC) and Guinea-Bissau Creole (GBC) a cluster of semantic feature values where the European language only has one. In order to measure degrees of simplification versus complexification, this paper uses Kusters’ (2003) complexity evaluation metrics involving inflectional morphology specifically. This paper also shows to what extent two sister creoles such as CVC and GBC, assumed to have emerged from the same source languages, display similarities and distinct differences in their morphological properties.

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.35.19bap

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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