Complex processes in new languages / edited by Enoch O. Aboh, Norval Smith.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Aboh, Enoch Oladé.

Smith, Norval.

Series:

Creole language library ; v. 35.

Creole language library, 0920-9026 ; v. 35

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Creole dialects.

Physical Description:

vi, 409 p. : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins Pub. Co., c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This paper addresses the issue of complexity in language creation and the time it takes for 'complex' structures to emerge in the history of a language. The presence of morphological material is often equated to a certain degree of complexity or is taken to signify a certain time-depth in the history of a language (e.g. Dahl 2004; McWhorter 2005). Though this assumption may be seen as trivial in the absence of a theoretically-based definition of complexity (Muysken 1988), or even misleading (Aboh and Ansaldo 2007; Farquharson 2007), we here put it to a test by looking at morphology in a relatively 'young' language, namely Sri Lanka Malay (SLM). SLM is a mixed language which shows considerably more morphological material and other signs of old age than 'prototypical' creoles. We explain this by arguing (a) that structural output in language genesis is closely motivated by the typology of the input languages and (b) that our understanding of rate of change needs to be revised to take into account ecological matters.

Contents:

Acknowledgments

Simplicity, simplification, complexity and complexification: where have the interfaces gone? / Enoch O. Aboh and Norval Smith

Part I. Morphophonology. Initial vowel agglutination in the Gulf of Guinea creoles / Tjerk Hagemeijer

Simplification of a complex part of grammar or not? What happened to KiKoongo nouns in Saramaccan? / Norval Smith

Reducing phonological complexity and grammatical opaqueness: Old Tibetan as a lingua franca and the development of the modern Tibetan varieties / Bettina Zeisler

Part II. Verbal morphology. Verb allomorphy and the syntax of phases / Tonjes Veenstra

The invisible hand in creole genesis: reanalysis in the formation of Berbice Dutch / Silvia Kouwenberg

Complexification or regularization of paradigms: the case of prepositional verbs in Solomon Islands Pijin / Christine Jourdan

Part III. Nominals. The Mauritian Creole determiner system: a historical overview / Diana Guillemin

Demonstratives in Afrikaans and Cape Dutch Pidgin: a first attempt / Hans den Besten

Part IV. The selection of features in complex morphology. Contact, complexification and change in Mindanao Chabacano structure / Anthony P. Grant

Morphosyntactic finiteness as increased complexity in a mixed negation system / Peter Slomanson

Contact language formation in evolutionary terms / Umberto Ansaldo

Part V. Evaluating simplification and complexification. Economy, innovation and degrees of complexity in creole formation / Marlyse Baptista

Competition and selection: that's all! / Enoch O. Aboh

Complexity and the age of languages / Umberto Ansaldo and Sebastian Nordhoff

Part VI. Postscript. Restructuring, hybridization, and complexity in language evolution / Salikoko S. Mufwene.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9786612485008

9781282485006

1282485008

9789027288776

9027288771

OCLC:

593294428