9. Convergence and explanations in creole genesis

Kouwenberg, Silvia

doi:10.1075/cll.23.10kou

Cited by 9 publications

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“…In this generation, crosslinguistic interference plays a role (i.e., structures get more pronounced when there is structural similarity between the language pairs in bilingual situations). 25 This process crucially involves convergence (see Kouwenberg, 2001). In our view, this generation is also responsible for some of the relexificational effects that have been documented by Lefebvre (1998) and Lumsden (1994Lumsden ( , 1995Lumsden ( , 1999 for Haitian Creole.…”

Section: Time Dimension Of the Processmentioning

confidence: 95%

THE SURVIVAL OF INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY IN FRENCH-RELATED CREOLES

Becker

Veenstra

2003

Stud Second Lang Acquis

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In traditional classifications of languages by inflectional subsystems, both creole languages and the results of untutored SLA (interlanguages) are classified as isolating. We focus on remnants of verbal inflectional morphology in French-related creoles and ask: (a) Can the properties of verbal morphology be attributed to SLA, and (b) what does this imply for creole genesis? We show how acquisition of inflectional morphology occurs in learner varieties of French from a basic variety perspective. We discuss reflexes of French inflectional morphology that survived the creolization process, resulting in a long–short opposition of verb forms: Across creoles, different grammatical properties are marked by this opposition. Finally, we consider the implications for creole genesis theories and propose a three-generational scenario of creolization with multiple agents.

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Section: Time Dimension Of the Processmentioning

confidence: 95%

THE SURVIVAL OF INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY IN FRENCH-RELATED CREOLES

Becker

Veenstra

2003

Stud Second Lang Acquis

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“…Indeed, linguists like Kouwenberg (2001) have consistently questioned the methodology used in detecting convergence. She argues that convergence is a process that has so far been identified only after the fact; it remains accordingly a mechanism that has been "postulated and not demonstrated" (Kouwenberg, 2001, p. 228).…”

Section: Framework and Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the role of convergence in language acquisition, with implications for creole genesis

Baptista

Gelman

Beck

2014

International Journal of Bilingualism

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The main objective of this paper is to test experimentally the role of convergence in language acquisition (second language acquisition specifically), with implications for creole genesis. Although there is ample evidence that similar features in languages in contact are enhanced both in second language acquisition and the creation of new languages, scholars are rarely explicit about the exact nature of that similarity and have not been in a position to observe convergence in progress. Our experiment is unique on two fronts as it is the first to use an artificial language to test the convergence hypothesis by making it observable, and it is also the first experimental study to clarify the notion of similarity by varying the levels and types of similarity that are expressed. We report an experiment with 94 English-speaking adults, designed to test how language learners acquire a new language in which the form and function (meaning) of linguistic items are either similar to or distinct from those in their L1. A miniature artificial language was created that included morphological elements to express negation and pluralization. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: congruent (form and function of novel grammatical morphemes were highly similar to those in English), reversed (negative grammatical morpheme was highly similar to that of English plural, and plural grammatical morpheme was highly similar to that of English negation), and novel (form and function were highly dissimilar to those of English). For each task, scores were entered into a one-way ANOVA with condition as the between-subjects factor. Participants in the congruent condition performed best, indicating that features that converge across form and function are learned most fully. More surprisingly, results showed that participants in the reversed condition acquired the language more readily than those in the novel condition, contrary to expectation. This experiment contributes to a

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“…But convergence has been described in various sub-disciplines of linguistics in a number of different ways. Kouwenberg (2001) compares the use of the notion of convergence in historical linguistics and creole studies, noting that it is used mostly as a descriptive concept in historical linguistics and in an explanatory manner in creole studies, "where it is interpreted as referring to multiple sources of creole forms or patterns and/or to multiple causation" (Kouwenberg 2001: 243). In studies on Second Language Acquisition, it is used to refer to the linguistic outcomes of a mostly psycholinguistic process in a bilingual or multilingual situation; the term convergence is applied to the new forms that result from putting elements together that were already present in existing language varieties.…”

Section: On the Notion Of Convergencementioning

confidence: 99%

In and Out of Suriname

Carlin¹,

Migge²,

Fat³

2015

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This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-NC 3.0) License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.The realization of this publication was made possible by the support of KITLV (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies).Cover illustration: On the road. Photo by Isabelle Léglise.This publication has been typeset in the multilingual "Brill" typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface issn 0921-9781 isbn 978-90-04-28011-3 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-28012-0 (e-book)

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9. Convergence and explanations in creole genesis

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

THE SURVIVAL OF INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY IN FRENCH-RELATED CREOLES

THE SURVIVAL OF INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY IN FRENCH-RELATED CREOLES

Testing the role of convergence in language acquisition, with implications for creole genesis

In and Out of Suriname

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