The Nature of a Creole Continuum

A quantitative sociolinguistic analysis of Bahamian copula absence

“…It is clear that the Bahamas is not as linguistically homogeneous as some research has assumed it to be, as variation occurs both between and within ethnicities. Shilling (1978) compares BBahC to AAVE as described by Labov (1969) and Guyanese Creole as described by Bickerton (1973). Though she notes several similarities to AAVE, she concludes that the alternate copula forms, such as de before locatives (identical to Guyanese Creole), suggest that copula absence in earlier BBahC is "similar to that of present-day Guyanese basilect" (Shilling, 1978: 176).…”

Appeals to prosody in Japanese Wh-interrogatives—Speakers’ versus listeners’ strategies

“…31 Such attempts have a very long and rich history in generative-grammatical studies, and numerous notions in syntax, semantics, pragmatics, phonology, and psycholinguistics have been claimed to be responsible for these asymmetries. See, for instance, Langacker (1969), Kuno (1975), and Bickerton (1973) for the topic of backward pronominalization. For the topic of quantifier scope, see Katz and Postal (1964), Ioup (1975), May (1977), and Croft (1983), among others.…”

Roots of language

“…This can affect any creole which has remained in contact with its superstrate, as most have. Decreolization is well documented for some English creoles (DeCamp 1971, Bickerton 1973a, but has been largely ignored in studies of other creoles. Valdman (1973) suggests that it is equally widespread among French varieties, and its presence in Cabo Verdiense and some other Portuguese creoles is quite apparent.…”