Limits of the substrate
-
Angela Terrill
Abstract
What grammatical elements of a substrate language find their way into a creole? Grammatical features of the Oceanic substrate languages have been shown to be crucial in the development of Solomon Islands Pijin and of Melanesian Pidgin as a whole (Keesing 1988), so one might expect constructions which are very stable in the Oceanic family of languages to show up as substrate influence in the creole. This paper investigates three constructions in Oceanic languages which have been stable over thousands of years and persist throughout a majority of the Oceanic languages spoken in the Solomon Islands. The paper asks whether these are the sorts of constructions which could be expected to be reflected in Solomon Islands Pijin and shows that none of these persistent constructions appears in Solomon Islands Pijin at all. The absence of these constructions in Solomon Islands Pijin could be due to simplification: Creole genesis involves simplification of the substrate grammars. However, while simplification could be the explanation, it is not necessarily the case that all complex structures become simplified. For instance Solomon Islands Pijin pronoun paradigms are more complex than those in English, but the complexity is similar to that of the substrate languages. Thus it is not the case that all areas of a creole language are necessarily simplified. One must therefore look further than just simplification for an explanation of the presence or absence of stable grammatical features deriving from the substrate in creole languages. An account based on constraints in specific domains (Siegel 1999) is a better predictor of the behaviour of substrate constructions in Solomon Islands Pijin.
Abstract
What grammatical elements of a substrate language find their way into a creole? Grammatical features of the Oceanic substrate languages have been shown to be crucial in the development of Solomon Islands Pijin and of Melanesian Pidgin as a whole (Keesing 1988), so one might expect constructions which are very stable in the Oceanic family of languages to show up as substrate influence in the creole. This paper investigates three constructions in Oceanic languages which have been stable over thousands of years and persist throughout a majority of the Oceanic languages spoken in the Solomon Islands. The paper asks whether these are the sorts of constructions which could be expected to be reflected in Solomon Islands Pijin and shows that none of these persistent constructions appears in Solomon Islands Pijin at all. The absence of these constructions in Solomon Islands Pijin could be due to simplification: Creole genesis involves simplification of the substrate grammars. However, while simplification could be the explanation, it is not necessarily the case that all complex structures become simplified. For instance Solomon Islands Pijin pronoun paradigms are more complex than those in English, but the complexity is similar to that of the substrate languages. Thus it is not the case that all areas of a creole language are necessarily simplified. One must therefore look further than just simplification for an explanation of the presence or absence of stable grammatical features deriving from the substrate in creole languages. An account based on constraints in specific domains (Siegel 1999) is a better predictor of the behaviour of substrate constructions in Solomon Islands Pijin.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface ix
-
Introduction
- The problem of the typological classification of creoles 3
-
Creoles spoken in Africa and in the Caribbean
- Èdó influence on Santome 37
- A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Portuguese Creole of Santiago Island (Cape Verde) 61
- Substrate influences in Kriyol 81
- One substrate, two creoles 105
- Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles 127
- Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the formation and development of the creoles of Suriname 155
- African substratal influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole 181
- Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andrés Creole Englishes 201
- Palenque(ro) 225
-
Creoles spoken in Asia
- Convergence-to-substratum and the passives in Singapore English 253
- Tone in Singlish 271
- The Cantonese substrate in China Coast Pidgin 289
- Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano 303
- Negation in Ternate Chabacano 325
- Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions 337
- Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates 367
- Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb 383
-
Creoles spoken in the Pacific
- Papuan Malay of New Guinea 413
- The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English 437
- Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol 461
- Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin 489
- Limits of the substrate 513
- Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacific Pidgin features in modern contact varieties 531
- The copula in Hawai‘i Creole English and substrate reinforcement 557
- “On traduit la langue en français” 575
-
Conclusion
- Creoles and language typology 599
- Index of authors 613
- Index of languages and language families 619
- Index of subjects 623
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface ix
-
Introduction
- The problem of the typological classification of creoles 3
-
Creoles spoken in Africa and in the Caribbean
- Èdó influence on Santome 37
- A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Portuguese Creole of Santiago Island (Cape Verde) 61
- Substrate influences in Kriyol 81
- One substrate, two creoles 105
- Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles 127
- Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the formation and development of the creoles of Suriname 155
- African substratal influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole 181
- Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andrés Creole Englishes 201
- Palenque(ro) 225
-
Creoles spoken in Asia
- Convergence-to-substratum and the passives in Singapore English 253
- Tone in Singlish 271
- The Cantonese substrate in China Coast Pidgin 289
- Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano 303
- Negation in Ternate Chabacano 325
- Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions 337
- Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates 367
- Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb 383
-
Creoles spoken in the Pacific
- Papuan Malay of New Guinea 413
- The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English 437
- Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol 461
- Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin 489
- Limits of the substrate 513
- Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacific Pidgin features in modern contact varieties 531
- The copula in Hawai‘i Creole English and substrate reinforcement 557
- “On traduit la langue en français” 575
-
Conclusion
- Creoles and language typology 599
- Index of authors 613
- Index of languages and language families 619
- Index of subjects 623
