French Creoles: A Comprehensive and Comparative Grammar

520 Pages·2017·3.54 MB·English

by  Anand Syea

www.ebook3000.com
French Creoles

A Comprehensive and Comparative Grammar
French Creoles: A Comprehensive and Comparative Grammar is the fi rst
complete reference to present the morphology, grammar, and syntax of a
representative selection of French creoles in one volume.
The book is organised to promote a thorough understanding of the grammar
of French creoles and presents its complexities in a concise and readable
form. An extensive index, cross-referencing, and a generous use of headings
provide readers with immediate access to the information they require.
The varieties included within the volume provide a representative collection
of French creoles from the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacifi c Oceans, including:
Mauritian Creole, Seychelles Creole, Réunion Creole (where relevant),
Haitian Creole, Martinique Creole, Guadeloupe Creole, Guyanese French
Creole, Karipuna, St. Lucia Creole, Louisiana Creole, and Tayo.
By providing a comprehensive description of a range of French creoles in a
clear and non-technical manner, this grammar is the ideal reference for all
linguists and researchers with an interest in Creole studies and in French,
descriptive and historical linguistics.
Anand Syea is Reader in Linguistics at the University of Westminster
(London) and a native speaker of Mauritian Creole.
Routledge Comprehensive Grammars
Comprehensive Grammars are available for the following languages:
Bengali
Burmese
Cantonese

Catalan
Chinese
Danish
Dutch
French Creoles
Greek
Indonesian
Japanese
Kazakh
Modern Welsh
Modern Written Arabic
Panjabi
Slovene
Swedish
Turkish
Ukrainian
www.ebook3000.com
French Creoles
A Comprehensive and
Comparative Grammar

A nand Syea
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Anand Syea
The right of Anand Syea to be identifi ed as author of this work has

been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-01564-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-38858-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon and Gill Sans
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
www.ebook3000.com
To my family and my very good friend, Robert Leyland
www.ebook3000.com
Contents

List of tables xv
Acknowledgements xvii
List of abbreviations xviii
List of symbols xix
1 Introduction 1
1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 Theories of creole development 2
1.1.1 Monogenesis theory 2
1.1.2 Substratist theory 3
1.1.3 Superstratist theory 3
1.1.4 Universalist theory 4
1.1.5 Feature pool hypothesis – an ecological approach 5
1.2 Contemporary debates 6
1.3 The comparative approach 7
1.4 About this book 9
1.5 About the French creoles 10
1.5.1 The Atlantic French creoles 10
1.5.2 The French creoles of the Americas 11
1.5.3 The French creoles of the Indian Ocean 12
1.5.4 The French creole of New Caledonia (Pacifi c) 13
2 Nouns 14
2.0 Introduction 14
2.1 General 14
2.2 Nouns in French 16
2.2.1 Subcategories of nouns 16
vii
Contents 2.2.2 Gender 18
2.2.3 Number 20
2.2.4 Agreement 21
2.2.5 Word order 23
2.3 Nouns in the French creoles 23
2.3.1 Subcategories of nouns 25
2.3.2 Gender 28

2.3.3 Number 31
2.3.4 Defi niteness and specifi city 35
2.3.5 Bare nouns 35
2.3.6 Noun-noun constructions 41
2.3.7 Nouns and derivational morphology
in the French creoles 44
2.4 Concluding remarks 46
3 Determiners 47
3.0 Introduction 47
3.1 General 47
3.2 Determiners in French 49
3.2.1 The defi nite article 49
3.2.2 The indefi nite article 50
3.2.3 The partitive article 51
3.3 Determiners in the French creoles 52
3.3.1 Loss of French defi nite articles 53
3.3.2 The indefi nite article 59
3.3.3 The defi nite determiner 61
3.3.4 The demonstrative determiner 74
3.3.5 The possessive determiner 78
3.4 Concluding remarks 84
4 Pronouns 85
4.0 Introduction 85
4.1 General 85
4.2 Pronouns in French 86
4.2.1 Personal pronouns 86
4.2.2 Demonstrative pronouns 90
4.2.3 Possessive pronouns 90
4.2.4 Refl exive pronouns 91
4.2.5 Impersonal/expletive pronouns 92
4.3 Pronouns in the French creoles 93
viii
www.ebook3000.com
4.3.1 Personal pronouns in the French creoles 93 Contents
4.3.1.1 Personal pronouns in the IOC 93
4.3.1.2 Personal pronouns in Haitian 96
4.3.1.3 Personal pronouns in Lesser
Antillean creoles 98
4.3.1.4 Personal pronouns in Guyanese 100
4.3.1.5 Personal pronouns in Karipuna 101

4.3.1.6 Personal pronouns in Louisiana Creole 102
4.3.2 Demonstrative pronouns in the French creoles 104
4.3.2.1 Demonstrative pronouns in the IOC 104
4.3.2.2 Demonstrative pronouns in Haitian 105
4.3.2.3 Demonstrative pronouns in
Lesser Antillean creoles 106
4.3.2.4 Demonstrative pronouns in
Guyanese and Karipuna 107
4.3.2.5 Demonstrative pronouns in
Louisiana Creole 108
4.3.3 Possessive pronouns in the French creoles 110
4.3.3.1 Possessive pronouns in the IOC 110
4.3.3.2 Possessive pronouns in the Atlantic
French creoles 111
4.3.3.3 Possessive pronouns in Karipuna
and Lousiana Creole 112
4.3.4 Refl exive pronouns in the French creoles 115
4.3.4.1 Refl exive pronouns in the IOC 115
4.3.4.2 Refl exive pronouns in Haitian 119
4.3.4.3 Refl exive pronouns in Lesser
Antillean creoles 121
4.3.4.4 Refl exive pronouns in Guyanese
and Karipuna 122
4.3.4.5 Refl exive pronouns in Louisiana
Creole 123
4.3.4.6 Refl exive pronouns in Tayo 124
4.3.5 Impersonal/expletive pronouns in the French
creoles 126
4.3.5.1 Impersonal/expletive pronouns
in the IOC 126
4.3.5.2 Impersonal/expletive pronouns
in Haitian 127
4.3.5.3 Impersonal/expletive pronouns
in Lesser Antillean creoles 129
ix