Claire Lefebvre

A diachronic and synchronic account of the multifunctionality of Saramaccan táa

Abstract This article bears on the properties and on the historical derivation of the multifunctional lexical item táa in Saramaccan, an English and Portuguese based Creole of Surinam. Táa fulfills several functions: it may be used as a verb, a complementizer, a quotative marker, and as a marker conveying similarity or manner. Táa is thus a multifunctional lexical item. Its functions parallel in a remarkable way those of the semantically closest substrate languages lexical entries. Furthermore, a review of the early sources reveals that táa was already a multifunctional item in early SA. This constitutes a major drawback for a grammaticalization account of the relationship between táki and táa. The properties of táa are argued to have been derived through the process of relexification. This process consists in assigning a new label to an existing lexical entry; relexification thus reduces to relabeling. Finally, the parameters of relexification/relabeling are shown to be compatible with a monosemic account of multifunctionality, and to not be compatible with a polysemic account of the phenomenon.

The emergence of productive morphology in creole languages: the case of Haitian Creole*

This paper addresses the problem of the emergence of productive morphology in creole languages on the basis of the case study of Haitian Creole. The aim of this paper is threefold: first propose methodologies that need to be developed in order to study the morphology of creole languages; second present a scenario of the emergence of productive morphology in these languages within the framework of what has come to be known as the relexification account of creole genesis (Lefebvre 1998 and the references therein) ; and third, address the current issues bearing on the study of the derivational morphology of creole languages on the basis of the data discussed in this paper. It will be shown that there are at least eleven affixes that can be argued to be productive in HC.

A new analysis of the Papiamentu clause structure

Abstract This paper reconsiders the complementiser and the tense-mood-aspect systems of the Papiamentu clause within the framework of the split CP (Rizzi 1997) and the split INFL (Pollock 1989) hypotheses, providing new evidence for the left periphery heads. It provides a detailed account of the Papiamentu morphemes involved that unifies syntactic and interpretive properties. Of particular interest is the proposal that di – which introduces infinitives – and lo – traditionally considered a future marker – both head FinP, and that pa, when functioning as a marker of necessity, heads MoodP. Contra certain claims in the literature, this paper argues that the order of preverbal material is not different from that of other Caribbean creoles.

New facts from Fongbe on the double object constructions

This paper bears on theoretical issues raised by the double object construction. On the basis of Fongbe data, the following issues are considered: (1) parameters proposed for the availability of double object construction in particular grammars, (2) the Theme/Goal asymmetries, (3) the semantic of the double object construction as opposed to the double complement construction, (4) the claimed transformational relationship between the double object construction and the double complement construction, (5) the syntactic representation of the double object construction, (6) the property that allows verbs to participate in the double object construction.

Functional categories in three Atlantic creoles : Saramaccan, Haitian and Papiamentu

This book is about the functional categories of three Caribbean creoles: Saramaccan, Haitian Creole and Papiamentu with two specific goals. The first one is to evaluate the respective contribution of the source languages to the functional categories of these three creoles. The second is to evaluate the degree of similarity/dissimilarity of the functional categories across these creoles. This study is cast within the relabeling-based account of creole genesis. Several lexical items discussed in this book may fulfill more than one grammatical function thus raising the issue of multifuctionality. No such in-depth comparative work of these three creoles with their source languages and of the three creoles among themselves is available elsewhere in the literature. This book is addressed to linguists (including Master and PhD students) interested in syntactic categories and more specifically in functional categories, to creolists and to researchers interested in language contact.

ON THE INTERPRETATION OF PREDICATE CLEFT

(3) a. no complements can appear with the predicate in the clefted predicate phrase; b. no determiner can appear in the clefted phrase; this indicates that a verb rather than a nominalized Version of a verb is found in the clefted phrase; c. the relation between the clefted phrase and the lower clause obeys subjacency; d. the predicate phrase is fully spelled out in the lower clause; e. se is obligatory in predicate cleft constructions, in contrast with nominal clefts where se is optional; f. a Tense marker can appear with the clefted phrase;