• Aucun résultat trouvé

The acquisition of Jamaican Creole: The emergence and transformation of early syntactic systems

N/A
N/A
Protected

Academic year: 2022

Partager "The acquisition of Jamaican Creole: The emergence and transformation of early syntactic systems"

Copied!
334
0
0

Texte intégral

(1)

Thesis

Reference

The acquisition of Jamaican Creole: The emergence and transformation of early syntactic systems

DE LISSER, Tamirand Nnena

Abstract

This study explores the early acquisition of Jamaican Creole (JC) syntax. There is a significant gap in linguistic research investigating the acquisition of creole languages which this research aims to repair. Six children, age ranging from 1;6 – 1;11, were recorded over an 18 month period. 60 minutes recordings were conducted every 10-15 days, thereby establishing the first longitudinal corpus of acquisition data in a creole language. The corpus was subjected to detailed analysis describing both target-consistent and target-inconsistent productions. The phenomena studied included the emergence of tense, aspectual and modal markers, null subjects, focalization, topicalization, interrogation and ‘typical creole features' such as verb serialization, double-negation, etc. The empirical findings provide evidence of early syntactic development and contribute to the on-going debate on Language Universals.

This study will have a long-lasting contribution to the linguistic community as it provides an accessible corpus of natural production of JC early syntactic systems.

DE LISSER, Tamirand Nnena. The acquisition of Jamaican Creole: The emergence and transformation of early syntactic systems. Thèse de doctorat : Univ. Genève, 2015, no. L.

835

URN : urn:nbn:ch:unige-742285

DOI : 10.13097/archive-ouverte/unige:74228

Available at:

http://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:74228

Disclaimer: layout of this document may differ from the published version.

1 / 1

(2)

The Acquisition of Jamaican Creole:

The Emergence and Transformation of Early Syntactic Systems

Doctoral thesis presented by:

Tamirand Nnena DE LISSER 2015

Thesis Jury: Professor Ur Shlonsky: University of Geneva (President) Professor Luigi Rizzi: University of Geneva and Sienna (Director) Doctor Stephanie Durrleman: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Professor Hubert Devonish: University of the West Indies, Mona

Professor Dany Adone: University of Cologne Professor Enoch Aboh: University of Amsterdam

(3)

i

For my son Kyahri

(4)

ii TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT………..

ABBREVIATIONS………..

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………

CHAPTER 1

Introduction………..

1.1 Motivation……….………...……

1.2 Goals of the study………..……….……

1.3 Organization of dissertation………….………..……

viii ix x

1 1 3 4

CHAPTER 2

Theoretical Background and Framework……….…

2.1 Introduction………...……….………

2.2 General background and concepts……….………….………

2.2.1 Basic concepts and ideas…………..…..…..…...………

2.3 Theoretical framework………...

2.3.1 Generative grammar...……..………

2.3.2 Principles and parameters framework...………...……..…………...

2.3.3 Extra-grammatical explanations………...………

2.3.4 Language bioprogram hypothesis………...………..

2.4 Conclusions………..………..………

7 7 7 9 11 11 13 14 15 18

(5)

iii CHAPTER 3

The Language Situation and Grammar……….

3.1 Introduction………

3.2 Language situation………..……

3.3 Jamaican Creole syntax………..………

19 19 19 23

CHAPTER 4

Methodology……….………

4.1 Introduction………

4.2 Participants……….………

4.2.1 Participants individual profiles………...………

4.3 Recordings………..………

4.4 Transcriptions, coding and analysis………...….…….…...…

4.4.1 Coding……….………

4.4.2 Analysis………

29 29 29 33 39 41 42 44

CHAPTER 5

General Developmental Patterns in JC……….

5.1 Introduction………

5.2 Developmental stages ………

5.3 Grammatical categories………..………

5.3.1 Utterance types………

5.3.2 Word classes………

5.3.3 Lexical categories………

5.3.4 Functional categories………..……

47 47 47 51 52 55 57 61

(6)

iv

5.4 Initial combinations………

5.5 Multiword utterances………..………

5.6 Discussion & conclusion………

5.6.1 Summary……….…………

63 68 73 74

CHAPTER 6

The acquisition of tense, modal and aspect………...

6.1 Introduction………

6.2 An overview of tense, modal & aspect in JC…….………

6.3 Modality……….

6.3.1 Acquisition of modality………...

6.3.2 Acquisition of modality in JC ………..………

6.3.3 Order of acquisition of modal markers………...………

6.3.4 Omission of modals...………

6.3.5 Intermediary conclusion………..………

6.4 Tense………...………

6.4.1 Acquisition of tense……….

6.4.2 Acquisition of tense in JC………...………

6.5 Aspect……….

6.5.1 Acquisition of aspect………...

6.5.2 Acquisition of aspect in JC……….…………

6.5.3 Omission of aspect markers………

6.5.4 Intermediate Conclusion……….………

6.6 Root infinitives………...……

6.6.1 Root infinitives in JC………..………

76 76 78 80 81 81 90 92 94 94 94 95 99 100 100 109 115 116 117

(7)

v

6.7 Cumulative development of the TMA zone…………...……….………..

6.7.1 Co-occurence of TMA markers………..………

6.7.2 Correlation of children’s utterance with input data……….

6.8 Discussion & conclusion………

6.8.1 Summary of main findings………..………

6.8.2 Discussion………...………

6.8.3 Conclusions……….…………

6.8.4 Future Research………...………

125 128 134 136 136 137 142 142

CHAPTER 7

Null subject phenomenon………

7.1 Introduction………

7.2 Object/subject asymmetry………..………

7.3 Early subject drop in JC……….………

7.4 Subject omission as a manifestation of the Privilege of the Root: overt wh- questions……….

7.4.1 Overt wh-phrase and null subjects………..………

7.5 Null subjects with null question-elements………..………

7.5.1 Null wh………

7.5.2 Null wh-elements and null subjects in JC………...………

7.5.3 Null subjects and yes/no questions in JC………

7.6 Revising the Privilege of the Root mechanism………..………

7.7 Summary and conclusion………...…………

143 143 144 153

164 167 175 175 177 184 187 193

(8)

vi CHAPTER 8

The acquisition of wh-interrogation, focalization and topicalization……….

8.1 Introduction………

8.2 Acquisition of Interrogation………...…………

8.2.1 Acquisition of constituent questions in JC……….………

8.2.2 In-situ wh-phrase……….

8.2.3 Movement in early wh-questions in JC…………...………

8.2.4 Errors in production………

8.3 Acquisition of focus in JC………..………

8.3.1 Overt focalized fronted constituents and null subjects…...………

8.3.2 Omission of overt focal marker a………

8.3.3 Focalized fronted constituents with omitted focus marker and null subjects………

8.4 Acquisition of topicalized constituents in JC ………..………

8.4.1 Target inconsistencies in early topicalized utterances………

8.5 Cartographic ordering of the left periphery in JC…………..………

8.6 Discussion and conclusion……….…………

195 195 196 196 199 201 205 205 217 219

222 225 228 234 237

CHAPTER 9

The acquisition of typical creole features………..………

9.1 Introduction………

9.2 Negation……….

9.2.1 Multiple negation………

9.2.2 Target inconsistency………

9.3 Serial verb construction………..…………

239 239 240 249 252 253

(9)

vii

9.3.1 Accounting for serial verb constructions in creole acquisition………...…

9.4 Inclusive/plural marking……….……

9.5 Pronouns and reflexives……….………

9.6 Copula………

9.7 Determiners………

9.8 Conclusions………

259 261 267 271 278 284

CHAPTER 10

Conclusions and implications……….………

10.1 Introduction………

10.2 Summary and conclusions………..…………

10.3 Implications for future work………..………

286 286 286 288

APPENDICES………..

Appendix 1: Consent form………...

Appendix 2: Codes and grammatical relations of JC………….…..………

Appendix 3: Distribution of TMA in the input………

REFERENCES……….

290 290 294 298

300

(10)

viii ABSTRACT

This research explores the early acquisition of syntactic properties in Jamaican Creole (JC) and their subsequent transformation into stable grammars. There is a significant gap in linguistic research investigating the acquisition of Creole Languages. With the exception of Adone’s (1994) and subsequent work, the acquisition of Creole Languages has not been extensively investigated. Adone concluded that more cross-linguistic research is required to provide more insights into the domain of creole language acquisition. The present research seeks to fill this void by establishing a corpus of natural production of JC children, between the ages of 18 – 40 months. This age range is not arbitrary as it corresponds to the period in which syntax emerges in children, and where target-inconsistent forms and structures have been documented in other languages (Guasti 2002; Radford 1990; Rizzi & Friedemann 2000).

Six children, from households where basilectal JC is the predominant language, were recorded over an 18 month period. 60 minutes recordings were conducted every 10-15 days, and the recorded material transcribed in accordance with the guidelines of the CHILDES Database. The corpus was subjected to detailed analysis aimed as describing both target- consistent and target-inconsistent productions. In an attempt to providing a broad overview of the language, attention was paid to the emergence of tense, aspectual and modal markers, null subjects, focalization, topicalization and interrogation, typical creole features such as serial verb constructions, negative concord, etc. The empirical findings provide evidence of early syntactic development and contribute to the on-going debate on Language Universals. This study proves to be significant as it is the first longitudinal exploration of the acquisition of a Creole Language. It will have a long-lasting contribution to the Linguistic community as it provides an accessible corpus of natural production of JC early syntactic systems.

(11)

ix ABBREVIATIONS

Ø Null

1SG 1st person singular pronoun 2SG 2nd person singular pronoun 3SG 3rd person singular pronoun 1PL 1st person plural pronoun 2PL 2nd person plural pronoun 3PL 3rd person plural pronoun ABL Ability Modal

ASP Aspect

COM Communicator COMP Completive Aspect COP Copula

CMP Complementizer DEF Definite Determiner DEM Demonstrative DET Determiner EPIS Epistemic modal EQU Equative Copula FOC Focus particle FUT Future

GEN Genitive

INCL Inclusive marker INF Infinitive

INDEF Indefinite Determiner LOC Locative

MOD Modal

NEC Necessity Modal NEG Negator

NOM Nominative OBL Obligation modal PAST Past tense

POSS Possessive PREP Preposition

PROG Progressive Aspect PROS Prospective Aspect Q: indef Indefinite Quantifier REF Reflexive

REL Relativizer

RETRO Retrospective Aspect

(12)

x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This journey has brought me to the realization of how truly blessed I am, and I am happy that there are many persons to be acknowledged for my countless blessings!

This research project was made possible due to funds received from the Swiss National Science Foundation, to which I am grateful. I however owe my utmost gratitude to the Project Applicants: Ur Shlonsly, Luigi Rizzi and Stephanie Durrleman. Firstly, I want to thank Stephanie Durrleman, not only for envisioning this research, but more so for always being there for me. Stephanie has not only been an advisor providing feedback and directives on my academic life, but has been like family away from home. She has opened her doors to me and I have benefitted tremendously from her warm hospitality and thoughtfulness. For these and many more that I will not mention here in the interest of space and time, I am profoundly indebted to her.

Next I would like to express gratitude to my Thesis Director, Luigi Rizzi, and the President of my Jury, Ur Shlonsky, for their invaluable advice, directives, comments and feedback in moulding me to produce this work. I could not have done it if it was not for their guidance, encouragement, support and commitment. The opportunity afforded to work with them and to benefit from their vast knowledge and experience is such an honour to me, of which I am extremely grateful.

I would also like to thank Hubert Devonish, Dany Adone, and Enoch Aboh, who despite their packed schedules have agreed to serve as members of my defence committee. I recently met both Dany Adone and Enoch Aboh and have discussed with them various aspects of my research. Their useful suggestions and general advice are greatly appreciated. It is indeed a privilege to have them on my defence committee. My gratitude for Hubert Devonish is more

(13)

xi

time-honoured. Hubert Devonish introduced me to Linguistics, and has never faltered in providing guidance throughout my maturity in this aspect of my life. ‘Prof’, as he is affectionately called, would go the extra mile for his students, in ensuring our success. He is always willing to brainstorm with us in finding the perfect solution to any problem that we may face. I am at a loss for words that can justly describe the magnitude of thanks that I would love to express to Hubert Devonish.

Other key persons to whom I express gratitude are the research participants and their families who have welcomed me wholeheartedly into their homes and personal lives. Without their commitment this research would not have been possible. I am extremely appreciative of them.

Immense credit is due to my Research Assistant, Nickesha Dawkins. The data collection and transcriptions could not be realistically achieved if it was not for her dedication and assistance. Furthermore, the general support and words of encouragement received from Nickesha throughout this entire journey is dearly valued. Additionally, I extend my thanks to Danielle Smith, Sheneil Ellis, Patrice Clarke and Tahirah Charles who all worked assiduously in coding the data for analysis. The analysis could not be feasible without their diligence.

I would also like to say a special thanks to Per Baumann who had kindly accepted the challenge of thoroughly proof-reading my entire dissertation and providing instrumental feedback in improving the overall quality of my work. Merit is also extended to my office mates Christopher Laenzlinger, Gabriela Soare, Goljihan Kashaeva and Tomislav Socanac for their assistance and words of encouragements. Other members of the department that I express gratitude to are Margherita Pallottino, Tabia Ishane, Genoveva Puscas, Jean-Philippe Goldman, Annamaria Bentea, Frederique Berthelot, Giuliano Bocci, Paola Merlo, Sarah Ouwayda and Jacques Moeschler. To all the other members of the department who have provided assistance and or encouragement, I duly thank you. Of course this section would not

(14)

xii

be complete without a special thanks to the Department's Secretary, Eva Capitao. Eva is to be acknowledged on so many levels; her willingness to assist with every request, her warm embraces, her gifts, the chats which contributed to improving my level of French, and above all her encouragements.

I would also like to take the time out to recognise the members of the Doctoral Schools which I have attended and the audiences at SCL-SPCL-ACBLPE 2014, GALA 2013, FACS4 2014, GRGC 2014, SPCL-ACBLPE 2013 and GDRI Meeting 2013 who have provided support and feedback to my work. The Academic Society of Geneva and the SPCL Peck Fund should be highlighted for their assistance in making my attendance at the SCL and SPCL meetings a reality. Likewise I would like to express my profound gratitude to the Ernst et Lucie Schmidheiny Fondation for the grant received.

Acknowledgements are also extended to a few friends who have provided support to me at one point or another throughout my entire journey: Salwa Soliman, Florent Duponcel, Tasheney Francis, Marcia Allen, Auline Smith, Sharon Henry, Carl Brown, Shane Lawson, Rohan Whyte and the JAS Family. I would also like to thank my siblings: Lecia, Thirdis, Jadine, Iley, Tibab, Ras Emosep, Kuwaame and Dennis. Their interminable love and support is appreciated. Though we are oceans apart, at no time have I ever felt like I am in this alone. I could not have done this without them. Finally I would like to thank the two most instrumental persons in my life who have sculpted me to be who I am: my mother Blossom and my son Kyahri. I love them and I will forever be grateful to them for believing in me!

I put forward gratitude to all the positive energies in the universe that have attracted other positive energies, and in so doing, have engulfed my world. And for those who I have not mentioned, please find comfort in the fact that you too have contributed to the pool of positive energies that surrounds me and as such is duly recognised. I am truly grateful of my blessings.

(15)

1 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 MOTIVATION

First language acquisition refers to the process by which a child develops his or her first language. This is interesting not only from a theoretical perspective, but is a remarkable experience for anyone, especially parents, observing the transformation of their children’s linguistic achievements. Just yesterday my son was babbling, and before you could imagine he is a ‘talking machine’. Where does this language come from? When exactly did it happen?

How do children acquire target-like competence in their linguistic production?

In the last 40 years, there has been increasing scientific research on these mysteries of language acquisition. Recent research has shown that early syntactic processes obey systematic patterns constrained by specific rules. Arguably, these rules are endowed by an innate language mechanism which appears to be universal. These findings are however based on the acquisition of European languages such as French, English, German, etc. It is just recently that research in the domain of child language acquisition has been extended to non- Indo-European languages such as Japanese, Korean, Chinese, etc. Still the acquisition of other types of languages such as Creole languages remains a domain that has not been extensively investigated. Apart from Adone (1994, 2012 and subsequent unpublished work), Adone &

Vainikka (1999), and Pratas & Hyams (2009), the acquisition of Creole presents a lacuna in the field of language acquisition. To date, there has been absolutely no published work on the acquisition of Jamaican Creole Syntax. Adone (1994:144) concludes that “more cross-

(16)

2

linguistic data is required to provide more insight into this domain together with the study of Creole acquisition.”

The time is therefore ripe for more such research, as Bickerton (1999a:67) underlines when considering the state of affairs: “The all-but-complete absence of studies of how creoles are nowadays acquired constitutes a significant gap in our knowledge of acquisition, given the extent to which our knowledge has expanded crosslinguistically in the past couple of decades (Ochs 1982; Schieffelin 1979; Slobin 1985; etc.), even if creoles are no more than just another ordinary language family. Given the way in which they are, in fact, formed, their significance can surely not go much longer unexplored by acquisitionists.” The investigation of JC acquisition is therefore a starting point in our quest to fill this void that exists due to the dearth of studies on the acquisition of creole languages. Undertaking a study of the acquisition of JC syntactic structures will address theoretical issues related to the field of language acquisition at large.

Additionally, not only will this research contribute to scientific knowledge, but in the context of Jamaica, it may be applicable to well needed developments in language planning, particularly with regards to early childhood education. This study looks at the acquisition of grammatical structures of JC and is hoped to contribute to general policy making for early education, for example by helping teachers to have an idea of what the norm is for a child at various ages and what is deviant. Moreover, being that English is the official language used in education, the present study will not only reinforce the fact of the distinctiveness of JC and English, but more importantly it will establish the plausible differences in the course of acquisition of the two languages, thus providing a base for JC speakers’ inconsistent productions of the language used in the formal school system.

(17)

3

Meade (2001) offers a descriptive account of the acquisition of Jamaican phonology, which represents stages of segmental acquisition for children aged one to four and a half years. More recently, Karla Washington, Sharynne McLeod, Hubert Devonish & Maureen Samms- Vaughn (personal communication) have been doing Speech Language Pathology related research covering the linguistic development norms of young children (aged three to six years) in Jamaica. Along similar lines, the present research practically provides a much- needed accessible database for further study of the Jamaican language situation and the overall acquisition of the language.

1.2 GOALS OF THE STUDY

Based on longitudinal naturalistic data, this dissertation focusses on the emergence of the syntactic systems of JC and investigates their transformation into the target grammar in the course of the first years of life. The dissertation, with reference to relevant theoretical concepts, provides an extensive descriptive analysis of both target-consistent and target- inconsistent production in the development of the grammatical representations of the children acquiring JC. The main goals therefore are:

a) To map the process of development, including time-lines and sequence, by which children acquire specific grammatical structures.

b) To develop an accessible database of longitudinal naturalistic JC data.

c) To fill the gap in first language acquisition studies with respect to creole languages.

Creole languages, being of the analytic type, provide overt realization of various syntactic elements and positions by using free morphemes. As such they are particularly suited for mapping the incremental development of child grammar. As previous research on the

(18)

4

acquisition of such languages is sparse, this dissertation aims to provide insights to the many questions that are still open:

1) Is there a developmental order in the acquisition of lexical and functional structures, with the latter globally delayed with respect to the former (Radford 1990)? Or do lexical and functional structures co-occur at all levels of acquisition?

2) Does structure emerge incrementally in line with the incremental structure building approach to development (Radford 1990, and subsequent works) or are all structures available when significant production starts in line with the full competence approach (Poeppel & Wexler 1993)?

3) Does the grammar of children acquiring JC replicate the highly structured cartographically-coherent pattern of the target language?

4) Is the acquisition of JC exceptional or is it acquired just like other well-studied languages? Do learners of JC go through a root null subject phase? Does their grammar reflect Root Infinities? Are structures acquired effortlessly and without errors reflecting immediate target consistency?

In this thesis an attempt is made to evaluate competing accounts of early syntactic development and add to the discussions of linguistic universals.

1.3 ORGANIZATION OF DISSERTATION

The dissertation is structured as follows. Chapter 2 provides succinct contextual details on the state of scientific research in the field of first language acquisition and defines the main concepts which are relevant to the present study. It then discusses the theoretical framework on which the research is based.

(19)

5

Chapter 3 deals with background aspects of the Jamaican language situation which have major impacts on the current study. This includes a description of the creole continuum and a synopsis of language use in early education. Additionally, this chapter provides a concise description of the syntactic features of the adult language which is the target structure for the children studied in the present work.

Chapter 4 discusses the methodology. It gives details of the participants, their environments and the criteria employed in their selection. Data collection procedures for gathering the naturalistic speech data on which this dissertation relies are described. Additionally, the procedures of transcribing, coding and analyzing the data are outlined.

Chapter 5 provides a step-by-step descriptive view of the general development patterns of clauses thereby proposing an analysis of phrase structure in the initial phase of language acquisition. It charts a system of grouping which enables a comparative analysis of early grammatical development in terms of stages and maps the changes in acquisition as children move towards the target system. It examines utterance types, lexical and functional grammatical categories, and the basic principles of phrase and sentence formation as children move from single-word to multi-word utterances.

Chapter 6 reports on the acquisition of inflection, focusing on the production and omission of Tense, Mood and Aspect (TMA) markers. It examines what appears to be evidence of a Root Infinitive Stage in early JC. It outlines the co-occurrence of various TMA markers thereby establishing a cartographic representation of the Inflectional Phrase in early JC.

(20)

6

Chapter 7 provides a systematic analysis of early subject omission in JC. It discusses the object/subject asymmetry and details the general pattern of the null subject phenomenon in the production of the children in the corpus. The findings provide empirical support for the

“Privilege of the Root” and for the Truncation Hypothesis. The phenomenon of subject omission in null wh-constituent questions and yes/no questions is best captured by a revision of the approach to the “Privilege of the Root” and Truncation, along the lines of the spell-out mechanism of Phase Theory.

Chapter 8 looks at the emergence of left-peripheral movement in children’s grammar, focussing on movement operations involved in wh-interrogation, focalization and topicalization. It examines the omission of overt focus markers and details the phenomenon of null subjects in these environments. Additionally it provides a cartographic mapping of the relative order attested in the development of the hierarchal structure of the Complementizer Phrase.

Chapter 9 examines the acquisition of various constructions generally characterized as being typical creole features and evaluates their development in terms of errorless acquisition. It describes the early development of negation and negative concords, verb-serialization, pluralization/inclusiveness, pronouns and reflexives, determiners, and the production and omission of the copula.

Finally, Chapter 10 embeds the acquisition findings as presented in the previous chapters into a brief discussion of the overall emergence and transformation of early syntactic systems of JC, and concludes with remarks on future prospects.

(21)

7 CHAPTER 2

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND FRAMEWORK

2.1 INTRODUCTION

There are some striking similarities in early syntactic developments which have been observed cross-linguistically and for which varying theories of language acquisition have been posited. The goal of this chapter is to provide a concise theoretical backdrop of the state of scientific research in the field of first language acquisition (section 2.2) and to outline the framework in which the present research is couched (section 2.3).

2.2 GENERAL BACKGROUND AND CONCEPTS

There are some basic questions which studies on first language acquisition generally aim to answer: How do children systematically acquire language? Is there a strict developmental order to language? What factors affect linguistic development? Various methods have been employed in studies aimed to answer these questions; despite the differences in methodologies, all studies converge on the fact that any human child can acquire the language of their linguistic community effortlessly, without explicit teaching, on the basis of positive evidence, under varying circumstances, and in a limited amount of time. In addition, despite great differences in input and in conditions of acquisition, this process is achieved in remarkably uniform ways cross-linguistically. For example, at about 6 - 8 months all children start to babble; at about 10 - 12 months they speak their first words and between 20 and 24 months they begin to put words together (Guasti, 2002). Also the structures that children form are similar across languages, whether they are target-consistent or not: for example research

(22)

8

shows that children in the initial stages of language acquisition omit sentential subjects, regardless if these are features of the target language. Additionally, it is observed that by the time children begin to utter word combinations equivalent to full sentences, they have already figured out the rules governing word order and the position of verbs in the sentence. Thus the production of a child acquiring English will manifest Verb-Object (VO) order while that of a child learning Japanese will manifest Object-Verb (OV) order. French learners position the inflected verb to the left of the negative particle pas while English learners position the negative particle before the verb, as in the corresponding target language (Pierce 1992).

The vast majority of these results in acquisition studies, as reported above, originate from research on the acquisition of major European languages. It is quite recent that research on non-European languages (such as Japanese, Korean, Hebrew, and others) has become significant. What is still lacking however, as alluded to in the Introduction, is research on the acquisition of creole languages. It is important to include different types and families of languages such as creoles in order to strengthen theory-guided research in acquisition.

Despite the languages being studied or the methodology and framework adopted, there are some basic concepts which most syntactic theories of first language acquisition have adopted.

Some of these basic concepts underlying research in the domain of first language development will be now discussed.

(23)

9 2.2.1 Basic Concepts and Ideas1

Language entails a psychological system realized in our mind/brain called a grammar. Our linguistic knowledge allows us to produce an infinite set of utterances from a finite set of lexical items, and also to understand sentences that we have never heard before. Additionally, it gives us a tool to assess the acceptability of such utterances in accordance with the rules of our language and the associated interpretation or meaning of the utterance. In short, grammar is a system which ascribes certain structural representations to sentences and sanctions certain interpretations while forbidding others. It does this by means of constraints that establish whether certain constructions are possible or not possible in a language. Constraints are linguistic principles that prohibit certain arrangements. Sentences that are considered well- formed or acceptable in a particular language must conform to the linguistic constraints governing the language. But how do children gain this grammatical knowledge?

Different hypotheses have been advanced, one of which holds that children learn language through imitation (see Fraser et.al, 1963). The general idea here is that children imitate what adults say by trying to repeat what they hear. However several facts showing that there is no necessary similarity between the linguistic input that children receive and their subsequent linguistic output argues against this hypothesis. For example children produce novel utterances that they have never heard because the adult speakers in their environment do not produce them. So an English learner would over regularize irregular past tense verbs, produce target-inconsistent negation, utter ill-formed questions, etc. Moreover, children hear a finite number of sentences, however they are able to produce and understand many sentences, including those that they have never heard before and therefore cannot be imitating. Another

1 Ideas and discussions from this section are mainly from (Guasti, 2002).

(24)

10

idea is language learning through reinforcement. According to this view, children learn language because they are positively reinforced when they produce correct utterances and negatively reinforced when they make errors. This is in-line with one of the earliest scientific explanations of language acquisition, known as behaviourism (Skinner 1948). The main idea here is that children learn by echoing the behaviour of others, and when done correctly, is positively reinforced. This hypothesis however, like the acquisition through imitation hypothesis, cannot explain how humans acquire language and cannot characterize human linguistic competence. First, it cannot explain how children acquire competence over an indefinite number of sentences for which no reinforcement was provided. Second, in parent child discourse, parents do not normally check for grammatical correctness, and if they should do so, such corrections go unnoticed. Reinforcement therefore does not explain human linguistic attainment.

The answer that Chomsky (1959 and much subsequent work) gave is that this grammatical knowledge is based on an inborn predisposition. Arguments from the poverty of the stimulus, that all speakers of a language know only a fairly abstract property and that this property cannot be induced from the evidence available to children (positive evidence), point to the requirement of an innate language mechanism. The hypothesis that the language capacity is inborn and richly structured explains why language acquisition is possible, despite all limitations and varying circumstances in which language learning takes place. It also explains the parallels in the time course and content of language acquisition. Though languages are similar, in accordance with this innate mechanism, there are very obvious variations. These variations are however not unlimited, but are restricted by Universal Grammar (UG). UG is the name given to the set of constraints with which all humans are endowed at birth and that are responsible for the course of language acquisition.

(25)

11

Based on this background we will now examine the theoretical framework that guides the present research.

2.3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

This study is couched within the framework of Universal Grammar (UG) (Chomsky 1981a), guided by the Principles and Parameters approach to language development. The theory of UG proposes that there are common properties that all natural human languages share, which are manifested innately without any formal training. Despite the varying circumstances and the relatively limited amount of input data to which children are exposed, linguistic milestones are achieved in a parallel fashion across languages. The resulting system of knowledge is referred to as the grammar of the language the child is being exposed to.

According to Crain & Thorton (2006) it is UG which provides the roadmap for which this course of grammar formation is derived. This roadmap consists of principles of grammar, unvaried and valid for any possible human language, and a restricted set of options called parameters, which together define the range and limits of possible cross-linguistic variation.

From this angle, language acquisition therefore consists of fixing the values of the various parameters (Chomsky 1981, Hyams 1986, Wexler 1998).

2.3.1 Generative Grammar

The study of generative grammar is basically concerned with determining and characterizing the linguistic capacities of individuals, both the initial state that is a common human endowment and the subsequent grammar attained by the language faculty. In the generative framework, work in the field of language acquisition tends to fall in two main categories:

(26)

12

continuity and maturation. According to the continuity model, grammatical principles are available at all stages from birth and do not change (Pinker 1984, Borer & Wexler 1987).

Early grammar has all the same properties of the adult language, and the gap between early and adult systems is accounted for by the assumption that children must learn language- specific properties, and that development results in growth in other domains such as the lexicon, pragmatic competence and processing abilities. Radical versions of the continuity hypothesis, generally referred to as the Full Competence hypothesis allows for the least degree of freedom for the child’s grammar to diverge from the adult’s, and as such relies on external factors to account for changes in development (as discussed by Rasetti, 2003).

In the maturation model (postulated by Radford 1990; Vainikka 1993/4; Borer & Wexler 1987; Wexler 1998; among others) the basic assumption is that there is a genetically determined maturation of grammatical categories and principles initially absent from child grammars. The gap between early and adult systems is accounted for by the immature state of UG. Although UG is available at birth, not all aspects are readily available and developmental time may be extensive (Borer & Wexler, 1987). The basic idea of maturation-based approaches is that children systems contain only the basic structure of UG, which is modified over time by eventual changes and additions of specific properties compatible with UG.

Some proponents of the full-competence hypothesis assume maturational processes that may impact language development. For instance, Rizzi (1992, 2000) assumes that children can initially produce truncated sentence structures without some functional projections because the constraint that requires all sentences to be full CPs only matures later2. These truncated

2 But see Rizzi (2005) for an analysis of truncation as a parametric property.

(27)

13

structures are not arbitrary, but grammatically based, and child grammars remain highly constrained by UG.

2.3.2 Principles and Parameters Framework

Under the Generative Framework, Chomsky and Lasnik (1993) posited that in the normal course of development, the language faculty passes through a series of states in early childhood, from an initial genetically-determined state (UG) to a relatively steady state that undergoes little subsequent change (target grammar). It is assumed that UG specifies an infinite range of symbolic objects (referred to as structural descriptions) for each of the permissible phonetic forms for human languages. This initial specification operates in much the same way in every child and is rich enough to account for the attainment of a specific language on the basis of the linguistic evidence available to the child. Arguably, it is not readily operative in its full-fledged form but is learnable through experience, and is in fact an empirical discovery for the child. Linguists working in the Principles and Parameters framework therefore aim to determine the nature and degree of the grammatical knowledge available to the child at specific stages of development. While some proponents argue that linguistic abilities are observed to develop overtime, and children’s grammars appear to transform with development, there is still a debate of whether early grammatical knowledge is entirely available through all stages of development or whether some parts of it increase overtime.

It is hypothesized that in the course of language development, children will need to “factor out” overarching principles of UG that govern general rule application in order to access the actual rules of the target grammar in the simplest form, with the relevant principles ensuring

(28)

14

that they will operate in such a way consistent with the input data available. Such ideas lead to the principles and parameters approach. The principles and parameters hypothesis is that all principles are assigned to UG and that cross-linguistic variation is restricted to certain options as to how the principles apply. For instance, a directionality parameter was suggested to capture the fact that phrases can either be left-headed (e.g. English VPs with VO-order) or right-headed (e.g. Japanese VPs with OV-order). Likewise a pro-drop parameter allows for the omission of subjects depending on what values apply to the language being acquired: e.g.

Italian is +pro-drop, where pronominal subjects can be dropped, while English is –pro-drop, which does not allow pronominal subject drop. Under this approach, the theory of language acquisition is then concerned with the acquisition of lexical items, fixing the values of the parameters in line with the target language, and perhaps maturation of principles (Hyams 1986, Roper & Williams 1987, Borer and Wexler 1987, Crain 1991). It is argued that grammatical “errors” committed by children in a non-systematic manner involve performance errors while extremely systematic target inconsistencies are attributed to a mis-setting of some parametric values. The distinction between the two however remains a moot and theoretically relevant issue (Rizzi, 2006).

2.3.3 Extra-grammatical Explanations

Language Acquisition may be also based on and explained by extra-grammatical factors and general cognitive development. One such approach to the study of acquisition has been labelled the ‘functionalist approach’. The general belief here is that the grammatical forms of any language are in some way determined by their communicative function and/or by features of general human cognition (Ritchie & Bhatia, 1999). Semantic and pragmatic constructs are integral to this approach to language development. For example, Greenfield & Smith (1976)

(29)

15

and Allen (2000) suggested that children tend to drop elements perceived as contextually salient, i.e. the material most easily recoverable from context. In addition, other proponents of extra-grammatical explanations argue in support of the ‘Classical Processing Approach’ to child language acquisition. This system of development is characterized by the development of performance or processing abilities (Bloom, Miller & Hood 1975; Bloom 1990; Valian (1991); among others). The general idea is that the child system is not able to deal with the grammatical complexity of the adult system, and as such deviations from the target (e.g. in the form of omissions) are evident. Bloom et al. (1975) for example, relate utterance length to factors ranging from word familiarity to discourse features. Additionally there is the Usage- Based Theory of child language acquisition as advocated by Tomasello (2000, 2003).

According to Tomasello (2000:1) “most of children’s early linguistic competence is item based, and therefore their language development proceeds in a piecemeal fashion with virtually no evidence of any system-wide syntactic categories, schemas, or parameters.”

According to Rasetti (2003) “the central problem with performance-based explanations is their vague and unrestrictive characterization of pragmatic and performance delays, which is a consequence of their relatively underdeveloped status of research in these areas”. In a nutshell, extra-grammatical theories cannot account for the developments of generative grammar and the principles and parameters approach as posited in the current research.

2.3.4 Language Bioprogram Hypothesis

According to Bickerton (1981, 1984, 1999, 1999a), the idea of UG is supported by creole languages because of the shared features among these languages. He argues that the structural similarities among creole languages cannot be solely attributed to their superstrate (i.e.

(30)

16

European languages spoken by the dominant group during language contact) and substrate (i.e. West African languages which were the native tongues of the slaves) languages, but instead is a result of children’s innate language device. He refers to this innate device as the language bioprogram, on which his theory, the language bioprogram hypothesis (LBH) is based.

Much advancement has been made on the description of various developmental phenomena after the LBH was first put forth. Bickerton (1999, 1999a) subsequently developed the bioprogram theory and its current state will be set forth in this section. According to Bickerton (1999, 1999a) the bioprogram consists of a set of default settings that apply when no evidence of any other pre-existing system is incorporated into the grammar. It consists of a finite list of options (features of languages that can be grammatically marked by morphemes as opposed to lexical items) such as number, gender, person, tense, modality, aspect, specificity, and so forth. It is assumed that there is a universal list of grammaticizable distinctions that languages must choose from. In the event where no, or an inadequate number of distinctions are present in the input (for example in creolization contexts), the child will revert to a set of default distinctions. These default distinctions are the features that are repeatedly found among creole languages (Bickerton, 1999).

If such a bioprogram for language exists, it is expected to play some vital role in the normal acquisition of language by children acquiring non-creole languages. As pointed out by Bickerton (1981) children acquiring English and other non-creole languages consistently use certain structures in a target-inconsistent manner. These structures however are found to be consistent with the rules hypothesized for the bioprogram and also the surface structures found in creole languages. For example children acquiring English use negative subjects with

(31)

17

negative verbs (nobody don’t… ); zero copula (I playing); adjectives and intransitive verbs as transitives and causatives (full my bucket, I’m gonna fall this on her); and other features typical of creole languages. Thus if the child should have been learning a creole language, the usage of such structures would be grammatical, reflecting immediate target consistency.

Bickerton (1999, 1999a) further states that children acquiring non-creole language may quickly acquire non-Bioprogram features and not necessarily enforce the default-list distinctions, or only employ them briefly where other universal grammaticizable distinctions are readily available in the target language. However if the target-language possesses the default creole-like features, these may well be acquired more rapidly and with significantly fewer errors than features not found in creoles. He points out that if the choice of parameter settings was open and made entirely on the basis of positive evidence; then children learning creole languages should produce target-inconsistent structures with roughly the same frequency as children learning non-creole languages. If however children acquire existing creoles largely without errors, then the possibility that there is only a single non- parameterized syntactic module, i.e. the default distinctions of the Bioprogram (and that all parameter setting accordingly takes place in the lexicon) would be increased. This single development is seen as providing all that is necessary for both the acquisition of pre-existing grammars, and if necessary, for the creation of a novel grammar. This is contrary to maturational models where different modules of syntax are envisioned as coming on line at different times. Adone (1994) has found the acquisition of Mauritian Creole to be largely errorless in the grammatical areas covered and thus strongly supports the LBH.

This proposal has clear similarities with Chomsky’s UG; however there are some differences of details. Chomsky proposed a devise that potentially generates a wide range of possible

(32)

18

grammars, from which the child choose on the basis of primary input. Conversely, the LBH is seen as a single, invariant innate grammar that might be subject to modification through relevant experience. It is not derived from input but is derived from the language faculties of the children concerned.

2.4 CONCLUSIONS

With the aim of offering a systematic and precise description of the development and transformations that a child goes through in order to reach the stable target grammar, it is necessary to adopt a comprehensible and structured framework which can produce testable predictions and offer coherent guidelines for the analysis. For this reason, the present study is embedded in, but not limited to, the parametric approach to language development and the classical framework of UG. Alternate views to the study of language acquisition and the general construction of grammatical knowledge will be considered whenever relevant. In addition, this study aims to test some of the predictions of the LBH. Being that longitudinal studies on the acquisition of creole languages are lacking, the present research will fill a void in language acquisition studies.

(33)

19 CHAPTER 3

THE LANGUAGE SITUATION AND GRAMMAR

3.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter deals with aspects of the Jamaican language situation which have major impacts on the current study and presents a concise description of the syntax of the language. The chapter is organized as follows: In section 3.2, I discuss the creole continuum involving three varieties: the acrolect, the mesolect and the basilect, the latter being the focus of this dissertation. The interaction between speakers of these varieties leads to significant linguistic variation and overlap in their grammars. Additionally, I present a synopsis of the roles of the languages in education, as some informants started to attend school in the latter stages of the data collection phase. In section 3.3 I turn to the syntactic description of the basilect which serves as a baseline of the target system that is being acquired.

3.2 LANGUAGE SITUATION

Jamaica, the largest English-speaking Island of the Caribbean, has a population of 2.7 million inhabitants. Standard Jamaican English (English) is the official language, i.e. the language used is schools, parliament and the media. Jamaican Creole (JC), an English-based creole, descended from language contact between Africans and Europeans during and after slavery (Roberts 2007), is the national language, and is spoken by the majority of the population. It is, for the most part, the ambient language used in the home and is the first language of most Jamaicans. Children acquire JC through parent, sibling and extended family interaction while

(34)

20

English appears to be primarily acquired from school interactions in the classroom (Carpenter, 2009).

The Jamaican language situation is generally described as a Creole Continuum (Decamp 1971) with speakers varying across the continuum from basilect to acrolect. At the basilectal extreme, also referred to as the ‘deep creole’, speakers’ production manifests most substratum influence (i.e. influence from West African languages as transmitted during slavery). This variety is farthest from the ‘local standard’ and is generally associated with a rural setting.

Speakers at the other extreme (acrolectal end) are envisioned to speak the ‘local standard’, which is the prestigious variety, containing the most ‘superstrate’ (British English) influences.

Situated in between the two extremes are the mesolectal varieties, which unequivocally share attributes of both extremes in varying degrees. Speakers of opposite extremes may be mutually unintelligible; however this is very rare as most people can adjust their variety upward or downward on the continuum (Durrleman-Tame, 2008). Speakers of the basilectal extreme are unintelligible to other Caribbean or foreign speakers of English (Lacoste, 2012).

The distinction between mesolect and basilect is not clear-cut as due to the relatively fluid social structure, rural varieties are becoming more and more subjected to urban influence, yielding more overlap between the two varieties (Winford, 1993). There are however, speakers who command only one of the distinct varieties (monolinguals) and others who command both varieties from either ends of the continuum (bilinguals). The Language Competence Survey of Jamaica (2007) reports that 46.4% of its sample demonstrated bilingualism; however only 17.1% were monolingual English speakers and 36.5% were monolingual JC speakers.

(35)

21

The examples in (13) illustrate some possible variations in morphosyntax found across the continuum (ranging from the basilectal extreme (a) to the acrolectal extreme (g)) for a single statement.

1) a. Im wehn de nyam im fuud.

3SG PAST PROG eat 3SG food b. Im behn a nyam im fuud.

3SG PAST PROG eat 3SG food c. Im did a nyam im fuud.

3SG PAST PROG eat 3SG food d. Im did a iit im fuud.

3SG PAST PROG eat 3SG food e. Im woz iitin im fuud.

3SG PAST eat~PROG 3SG food

f. Hii woz iitin im fuud.

3SG.NOM PAST eat~PROG 3SG.ACC food g. Hii woz iiting his fuud.

3SG.NOM PAST eat~PROG 3SG.GEN food

‘He was eating his food.’

In this work, we concentrate primarily on the variety found at the basilectal extreme of the continuum, which we have been referring to as JC. The choice for this selection is based on the fact that it is the variety with the least influence from Standard English, and therefore offering most syntactic novelty (in line with Durrleman-Tame 2008 and Bailey 1966).

3 Throughout this dissertation, examples which are not attributed a source are drawn from my native speaker’s competence. Note that I use the JLU modified Cassidy-LePage orthography (see section 4.4) for my own JC data, however where data is drawn from other sources, I use the spelling representations of those sources.

(36)

22

However, based on the continuum situation and the fact that English is the official language, it is challenging to find speakers of only the basilect, having absolutely no access to the acrolect or mesolectal varieties. Jamaicans, including those located at the basilectal end of the continuum, would therefore exhibit some knowledge of English from early childhood, since English is the variety used in education and the media (Lacoste, 2012). Due to the distinctive social/communicative roles that the varieties fulfill, the Jamaican speech community has been characterized as being diglossic (McCain, 1996). In the diglossic situations however, all speakers possess some degree of competence in both the high and low varieties, and can switch between varieties based on the situation of discourse.

During the course of the data collection phase some of the informants started to attend school.

It is therefore imperative to provide a sketch of the situation governing language use in early childhood education. Children entering the school system in Jamaica would be predominantly JC speakers, but due to the continuum situation there may also be a mixture with both JC and English. As a result, The Language Education Policy (LEP) was developed in 2001 to simultaneously promote oral use of JC in schools while facilitating the development of skills in English (LEP, 2001). The Ministry of Education has adopted an approach in which teachers

“promote basic communication through the oral use of the home language in the early years (e.g. Kindergarten to Grade 3) while facilitating the development of literacy in English”

(Bryan, 2001:23 in Lewis, 2010:13). This may include the teacher’s giving directions or explaining a task in JC. Additionally, many teachers, especially at the kindergarten level, are not fluent in English themselves. According to Bryan (2004), students and teachers may think they are using English, when often they are not. So while the LEP upholds that English should be used in the classroom, in reality, this is not necessarily the case. This may be due to the lexical similarity found across the varieties along the continuum, and speakers not directing

(37)

23

attention to the grammatical distinctions between the two languages in operation. For example JC is characterized by a cluster of grammatical properties which makes it quite distinct from English, such as serial verb constructions, double negation, lack of subject-auxiliary inversion, lack of case morphology or gender distinction on pronouns, etc. These features are typically found in Atlantic Creoles (Patrick 2004) and will be examined in the subsequent section.

3.3 JAMAICAN CREOLE SYNTAX

The grammar of JC has been comprehensively studied. Within the framework of generative grammar, JC has been studied by Bailey (1966), Patrick (2004), and others who have worked on specific grammatical properties of the language, such as Stewart (2006) on quantification.

More recently, Durrleman-Tame (2008) approached JC from the perspective of cartography (Cinque 1999; Rizzi 1997). Based on (but not limited to) these detailed syntactic analyses, I provide a general description of the relevant features of adult JC, which is used as the baseline for target consistency throughout this dissertation.

JC is a Subject Verb Object (SVO) language as exemplified by the declarative clause in (2a).

Except in cases of predicate clefting and other kinds of fronting, other orders, such as SOV, VOS, VSO, etc. as exemplified in (2b-d) are not felicitous as unmarked orders.

2) a. Kieti waan wan neda buk. (Bailey 1966) Katie want one another book

“Katie wants another book.”

(38)

24 b. *4Kieti wan neda buk wahn.

Katie one another book want

c. *wahn wan neda buk Kieti.

want one another book Katie

d. *wahn Kieti wan neda buk want Katie one another book

It is a non-null subject and a non-null object language and as such, it generally requires the presence of overtly realized subjects and objects:

3) * Ø wahn wan neda buk.

Ø want one another book

“She wants another book.”

4) * Kieti wahn Ø.

Katie want Ø

“Katie wants it.”

Tense, modality and aspect (TMA) are expressed via free functional morphemes, typically situated between the subject and the verb. These TMA markers and the verbal root remain invariable for subject agreement.

5) Jan shuda ehn a ron. (Bailey 1966) John MODAL PAST PROG run

“John should have been running.”

4 Throughout this dissertation * signals ungrammaticality.

(39)

25

6) Im wooda mos kyahn elp uno. (Durrleman-Tame 2008) 3SG MODAL MODAL MODAL help 2PL

“S/he would have necessarily been able to help you all.”

As seen in (5) and (6), these TMA markers can co-occur, however they must respect a particular hierarchy, along the lines of the following (Durrleman-Tame 2008):

7) Mod epistemic > Tense > Mod root obligation > Mod root ability/permission >

Anterior > Asp continuative > Asp retrospective > Asp progressive > Asp prospective > Asp completive > Asp frequentative

When non-stative verbs occur without TMA markers there is a default past reading, however bare stative verbs are interpreted as non-past.

8) Mi kik Mieri.

1SG kick Mary

“I kicked Mary.”

9) Mi laik Mieri.

1SG like Mary

“I like Mary.”

JC makes use of Serial Verb Constructions (SVC) as in (10) below. These involve a series of verbs, uninterrupted by a conjunction, which together express a single event with a single subject.

10) Im tek mi aki sel a maakit.

3SG take 1SG ackee sell at market

“S/he sold my ackee at the market.”

(40)

26

There exists an equative and a locative copula in JC. The former is used to make parallel two nominal elements as given in (11), and the latter precedes expression of location as in (12):

11) Jan a tiicha.

John COP teacher

“John is a teacher.”

12) Jan de skuul.

John COP school

“John is at school.”

The copula is however absent from certain constructions, for example, no copula is inserted with adjectives. As such adjectival predicates behave similarly to stative verbs (Bailey 1966):

13) Jan fiesti.

John rude

“John is rude.”

Negative concord, the phenomenon where multiple negative elements together yield a reading of negation, is attested in JC:

14) Im neva nyam notn.

3SG never eat nothing

“S/he never ate anything.”

Regarding interrogation, JC employs both simple bare wh-words such as uu ‘who’, wa ‘what’

and we ‘where’ and wh-compounds. Wh-compounds in JC tend to be “semantically transparent”, composed of a wh-morpheme and a questioned semantic unit (Patrick 2007), as in wich-paat ‘where’ wa-mek ‘why’, wa-taim ‘when’, uu-fa ‘whose’, etc. These wh-elements are placed in a sentence initial position, but like for Yes/No questions, there is no subject- auxiliary/TMA inversion:

(41)

27

15) a. Wich-paat Jan behn fling di rakstuon?

Where John PAST fling DET stone

“Where did John throw the stone?”

b. *Wich-paat behn Jan fling di rakstuon?

Where PAST John fling DET stone Additionally, the particle a may occur preceding a wh-element:

16) A wich-paat Jan behn fling di rakstuon?

A where John PAST fling DET stone

“Where did John throw the stone?”

This a-particle appears to be the same particle used in focalized constructions:

17) A di rakstuon mi a luk fa.

A DET stone 1SG PROG look for

“It’s the stone I am looking for.”

It must be noted however, that whereas this a-element obligatorily precedes the fronted- focalized phrases, it is optional in the case of wh-phrases (Durrleman-Tame 2008; Durrleman

& Shlonsky 2015). Another phenomenon involving fronting in JC is topicalization. Both adjuncts and arguments may be topicalized as in (18) and (19) respectively:

18) Tumaro mi wi ramp wid di pikni dem. (Durrleman-Tame 2008) Tomorrow 1SG FUT play with the child 3PL

“Tomorrow I will play with the children.”

19) Da bwai de, mi laik im. (Durrleman-Tame 2008) That boy LOC 1SG like him

“As for that boy, I like him.”

(42)

28

Unlike topicalization of an adjunct, topicalization of an argument requires the presence of a pronominal element in the comment to refer back to it (Durrleman-Tame 2008).

Nominals are not morphologically marked for nominative and accusative case, or for gender.

For genitive, they are also unaltered, although they are sometimes preceded by a prepositional element fi, as in fi mi ‘my’ fi yu ‘your’, fi dem ‘their’, etc.

Based on the description of the language situation given above, strict methodological considerations must be made in terms of selecting the right participants, whose linguistic repertoire contains the typical creole features that are found at the basilectal end of the continuum. This selection process will be discussed in the following chapter.

Références

Documents relatifs

In order to use our method for clinically relevant skin analysis, we first validate our technique using a population of healthy participants and then apply our method to the

Following the windows approach, this paper investigates the development of temporal relations in simple linguistic systems of different natures – early varieties of untutored

In the definition phase, we have chosen to analyze researchers’ sci- entific productions and to position these productions in relation to themes from our state of the art, and to

If there is a time lag before linguistic gender cues can influence categorization, we might observe that at an early point during language acquisition, more

Paradoxically, although the integration of arts and cultural education into curricula has become an evidence, in France, from the pre-elementary level (ISCED 0) to

URGES Member States to progressively introduce the above-mentioned process for the evaluation of national health programmes and services by national health personnel, and

previous work to the business process area with the consideration to its spe- cific characteristics, especially to adjust methods for sequence alignment to be able to

Trois grandes parties ont été nécessaires : une première partie bibliographique à travers laquelle nous avons passé en revue les travaux actuels entrepris dans ce domaine, une