John Benjamins Publishing Company
Are creoles a special type of language?
-
Abstract
This paper takes as its starting point Muysken’s (1988a: 300) view of a ‘creole’ language as “just a language.” With this statement, Muysken rejects the idea of a creole prototype. Over the past 20 years, that idea has seen several new proponents. We provide a brief overview, before turning our attention to the work of Bakker et al. (2011; et seq.). That work relies on statistical and phylogenetic computational procedures which are not well understood by many linguists in the field of pidgin and creole studies. As a result, Bakker et al.’s methodologies have gone virtually unchallenged, although several critiques of their data – and by implication, of their conclusions – have been published. In this paper, we focus on the methodologies, providing detailed explanations of the statistical and phylogenetic computational procedures. We show that the data set used in the statistical procedure, a multiple regression analysis, fails to come anywhere near the minimum number of datapoints required for such an analysis to be meaningful. We show further that the apparent sophistication of the phylogenetic approach, which relies on a combination of computational packages to produce output in the form of reticulate networks, cannot remedy the flaws arising from questionable assumptions about linguistic features, pervasive errors in the data which are fed into the computation (including errors which appear to be systematic), the problematic treatment of gaps in the data, and the overinterpretation of output patterns. Contrary to Bakker et al.’s claims, Muysken’s (1988a) statement has not been disproven by these technologies.
Abstract
This paper takes as its starting point Muysken’s (1988a: 300) view of a ‘creole’ language as “just a language.” With this statement, Muysken rejects the idea of a creole prototype. Over the past 20 years, that idea has seen several new proponents. We provide a brief overview, before turning our attention to the work of Bakker et al. (2011; et seq.). That work relies on statistical and phylogenetic computational procedures which are not well understood by many linguists in the field of pidgin and creole studies. As a result, Bakker et al.’s methodologies have gone virtually unchallenged, although several critiques of their data – and by implication, of their conclusions – have been published. In this paper, we focus on the methodologies, providing detailed explanations of the statistical and phylogenetic computational procedures. We show that the data set used in the statistical procedure, a multiple regression analysis, fails to come anywhere near the minimum number of datapoints required for such an analysis to be meaningful. We show further that the apparent sophistication of the phylogenetic approach, which relies on a combination of computational packages to produce output in the form of reticulate networks, cannot remedy the flaws arising from questionable assumptions about linguistic features, pervasive errors in the data which are fed into the computation (including errors which appear to be systematic), the problematic treatment of gaps in the data, and the overinterpretation of output patterns. Contrary to Bakker et al.’s claims, Muysken’s (1988a) statement has not been disproven by these technologies.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Introduction. Pieter C. Muysken 1
-
Part 1. Creole languages and creole studies
- Moving into and out of Sranan 37
- Sociolinguistic characteristics of the English-lexifier contact languages of West Africa 61
- The quest for non-European creoles 85
- Are creoles a special type of language? 107
-
Part 2. Linguistic areas
- Separating layers of information 161
- Areal diffusion of applicatives in the Amazon 179
- Transfer of Swahili ‘until’ in contact with East African languages 217
-
Part 3. Mixed languages and language mixing
- Turkish-German code-switching patterns revisited 237
- Mixing and semantic transparency in the genesis of Yilan Japanese 261
- Pottefers Cant, Groenstraat Bargoens, and the development of “have” and “be” in the wider context of contact 283
-
Part 4. Sociolinguististic aspects of language contact
- Sociolinguistic enregisterment through languagecultural practices 341
- Snow on the Danish Antilles? 365
- Subject index 389
- Author index 391
- Language index 397
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Introduction. Pieter C. Muysken 1
-
Part 1. Creole languages and creole studies
- Moving into and out of Sranan 37
- Sociolinguistic characteristics of the English-lexifier contact languages of West Africa 61
- The quest for non-European creoles 85
- Are creoles a special type of language? 107
-
Part 2. Linguistic areas
- Separating layers of information 161
- Areal diffusion of applicatives in the Amazon 179
- Transfer of Swahili ‘until’ in contact with East African languages 217
-
Part 3. Mixed languages and language mixing
- Turkish-German code-switching patterns revisited 237
- Mixing and semantic transparency in the genesis of Yilan Japanese 261
- Pottefers Cant, Groenstraat Bargoens, and the development of “have” and “be” in the wider context of contact 283
-
Part 4. Sociolinguististic aspects of language contact
- Sociolinguistic enregisterment through languagecultural practices 341
- Snow on the Danish Antilles? 365
- Subject index 389
- Author index 391
- Language index 397
