A Late-Insertion-Based Exoskeletal Approach to the Hybrid Nature of Functional Features in Creole Languages

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to further our understanding of the nature of functional features in Creoles while focusing on how the functional exponent is morphologically realized, assuming a late-insertion-based exoskeletal model in the language mixing scholarly literature. In language mixing, it is observed that words are mixed within a certain syntactic domain (e.g., DP-NP, VoiceP/vP-TP, etc.). For example, in the nominal domain, a determiner D may be from one language, and N (or a stem, e.g., root + categorizer) may originate from another language. Grimstad and Riksem propose that the functional projection FP intervenes between D and N, and both D and F are from one language and N from another language. The phonological exponent of the functional features (e.g., D and F) are assumed to be language-specific (i.e., from one language), subject to the subset principle. Closer to the case that concerns us, Åfarli and Subbarao show that through long-term language contact, functional features can be reconstituted, and the functional exponent can be genuinely innovative. In our study, we propose that functional features can be themselves recombined and that Creole languages can provide evidence for feature recombination either by virtue of their hybrid grammar or through the congruent functional categories they display, using a late-insertion-based exoskeletal model. That is, functional features are not individually inherited from one language or another but can be recombined to form new functional features, allowing a novel functional exponent. To show this, we use synchronic empirical data focusing on the anterior marker -ba from Cabo Verdean Creole (CVC), Manjako (one of CVC Mande substrates), and Portuguese (CVC lexifier) to show how the recombination may operate, as CVC -ba recombines the features it inherited from its source languages while innovating. In sum, the purpose of this study is to show that feature recombination targeting the functional categories of Creole source languages can lead to innovation and that a late-insertion exoskeletal model can best account for the novel functional exponents that result from feature recombination in Creole formation.

The importance of features and exponents

“…The structure-building component of grammar, i.e., syntax, operates on features b. These features are morphologically realized after Spell-Out, c. The morphological realization may be based on a single feature -one exponent (DM), or multiple exponents, d. This architecture is flexible enough to capture changes across the lifespan and across speakers and generations (see e.g., also Lightfoot 2020), e. This architecture supports a null theory approach, according to which the architecture proposed to account for monolingual speakers, Ln speakers, heritage speakers, and also possibly creole and pidgin speakers is one and the same (Sugimoto & Baptista 2022).…”

“…In recent years, various versions of this kind of architecture have become crucial in analyzing a range of bi-and multilingual data. This can be seen through the following non-exhaustive list of references: Aboh (2009Aboh ( , 2015Aboh ( , 2019Aboh ( , 2020, Alexiadou (2017), Alexiadou & Lohndal (2018), Alexiadou et al (2015), Grimstad et al (2018), Lardiere (1998aLardiere ( , b, 2005Lardiere ( , 2007Lardiere ( , 2008Lardiere ( , 2009Lardiere ( , 2017, Lohndal et al (2019), Lohndal & Putnam (2021, López (2020, to appear), Natvig et al (2023), Prévost & White (2000a, b), Putnam (2020), Putnam, Perez-Cortes & Sánchez (2019), Riksem (2017Riksem ( , 2018, Riksem et al (2019), Sugimoto (2022), Sugimoto &Baptista (2022), andVanden Wyngaerd (2021). In these analyses, disassociated feature structures and morphonological exponents play a crucial role in investigations of the development of the syntax-morphology interface in bi-and multilinguals across the lifespan.…”