Binding Theory, Bioprogram, And Creolization

Abstract

Bickerton and others have proposed models of creolization in which a creole with a bioprogram-unmarked grammar appears with the first gener ation of native speakers. When we construct the history of reflexives and anti-reflexives in Haitian Creole, we find instead a gradual development over more than 200 years, starting from a typologically unusual system that seems an unlikely candidate for the unmarked setting of the bioprogram, and passing through one or two intermediate stages to the typologically unmarked present-day system. A comparison with the limited available data on first and second language acquisition suggests that a model of creolization based on functional considerations and inheritance from a pre ceding pidgin will account for this history at least as well as a model based on first language acquisition. The history of Haitian Creole Binding Theory thus shows a classical "deep creole" acting much like Sankoffs analysis of Tok Pisin, and quite unlike the predictions of Bickerton's model or any model that predicts that a stable creole will develop in a single generation. This Haitian Creole data therefore implies a gradualist model of creolization, in which "creolization" is seen as a process extend ing over a number of generations of native speakers.

Reflexives in the creole languages: an interim report

“…Is there evidence for a pidgin or early creole generalized bare pronoun reflexive (as argued by Carden & Stewart 1988) or are the bare pronouns a late development under the influence of superstrate reflexive clitic systems (Come 1988)? Again, several languages provide relevant evidence on this point.…”

Eighteenth-Century Negerhollands reflexives Revisited

“…We claimed that the emergence of this form in the creole had been a rapid and autonomous development. In sum, our conclusions were roughly as follows: (a) Early NH had not been undergoing a process of gradual, but rather one of quite rapid expansion and, consequently, the emergence of reflexive marking in NH was not a gradual development (in contrast to what Carden & Stewart 1988 claim for Haitian).…”

On reflexive forms in creoles

“…in French, Spanish, Portuguese, German), they are rare in creoles; as far as we are aware, there is only one clear case: the southern dialect of Haitian CF. According to Carden and Stewart (1988), this dialect has a B-reflexive, as can be seen in the following examples, where first and second person pronouns are used reflexively while the third person pronoun is not:…”

“…When this strategy is applied, the result is an A-reflexive, or what Carden and Stewart (1988) call a ''[1,2,3 uR] pronoun system.'' Note that German and French use this strategy only for first and second person referents, not for third person referents, that is, they have what in Section 2 we called a B-reflexive.…”