The emergence of hybrid grammars : language contact and change / Enoch Oladé Aboh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Aboh, Enoch Oladé, author.

Series:

Cambridge approaches to language contact.

Cambridge approaches to language contact

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Interlanguage (Language learning).

Sublanguage.

Native language.

Language acquisition--Age factors.

Language acquisition.

Creole dialects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 346 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Summary:

Children are extremely gifted in acquiring their native languages, but languages nevertheless change over time. Why does this paradox exist? In this study of creole languages, Enoch Aboh addresses this question, arguing that language acquisition requires contact between different linguistic sub-systems that feed into the hybrid grammars that learners develop. There is no qualitative difference between a child learning their language in a multilingual environment and a child raised in a monolingual environment. In both situations, children learn to master multiple linguistic sub-systems that are in contact and may be combined to produce new variants. These new variants are part of the inputs for subsequent learners. Contributing to the debate on language acquisition and change, Aboh shows that language learning is always imperfect: learners' motivation is not to replicate the target language faithfully but to develop a system close enough to the target that guarantees successful communication and group membership.

Contents:

Foreword / by Salikoko S. Mufwene

1. Introduction

2. The agents of creole formation: geopolitics and cultural aspects of the Slave Coast

3. The emergence of creoles: a review of some current hypotheses

4. Competition and selection

5. The role of vulnerable interfaces in language change: the case of the D-system

6. The emergence of the clause left periphery

7. The emergence of serial verb constructions

8. Conclusions: some final remarks on hybrid grammars, the creole prototype, and language acquisition and change.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 24 Feb 2016).

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

1-316-30811-1

1-316-28730-0

1-316-32149-5

1-316-33151-2

1-316-32483-4

1-316-31813-3

1-139-02416-7