Nou oblije pale mo-to: Code-switching between two Creoles and their lexifier in French Guiana

302 Pages·2014·1.809 MB·English

by  Jason F. Siegel

NOU OBLIJE PALE MO-TO:
CODE-SWITCHING BETWEEN TWO CREOLES
AND THEIR LEXIFIER IN FRENCH GUIANA
Jason F. Siegel
SubmiedtothefacultyoftheUniversityGraduateSchool
inpartialfulfillmentoftherequirementsforthedegree
DoctorofPhilosophy
intheDepartmentofLinguisticsandtheDepartmentofFrench&Italian,
IndianaUniversity
June2014
UMI Number: 3628660
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AcceptedbytheGraduateFaculty,IndianaUniversity,inpartialfulfillmentofthe
requirementsforthedegreeofDoctorofPhilosophy.
DoctoralCommiee:
[AlbertValdman,Ph.D,Co-Chair.]
[KevinJ.Roet,Ph.D,Co-Chair.]
[JulieAuger,Ph.D.]
[J.ClancyClements,Ph.D.]
[DanielSuslak,Ph.D.]
December9,2013
ii
Copyright©2014
JasonF.Siegel
iii
Anowledgments
erearealwaysmanypeopletothankinanundertakingsuchasadissertation. Firstand
foremost, I must thank my commiee members, Julie Auger, Clancy Clements, Daniel
Suslak, and especially my co-chairs Kevin Roet and Albert Valdman, for their reliable
encouragement and helpful feedback. Dr. Roet went above and beyond the call of an
adviserbymeetingwithmeeveryweektogivevaluableadviceandtohelpmestrengthen
my research and argumentation. Dr. Valdman took me on early in my graduate career
and served as a valuable mentor on all maers of life as an academic, both intellectual
and pragmatic. I must also thank Barabara Vance and Laurent Dekydtspoer for their
informal advising on maers of syntax, as well as Marvin Moody, who encouraged me
early on and throughout my graduate career. I am extremely grateful for the contribu-
tions of all those mentioned above, and any errors and misjudgments are of course my
own.
Iamalsoindebtedtothosewhomadethisresearchpossible. eCenterofLatin
AmericanandCaribbeanStudiesatIndianaUniversityfundedmyinitialtriptoCayenne,
where I was able to conduct preliminary research and develop ties to the Haitian com-
munity in Cayenne. e Department of French & Italian funded not only my research
tripinthespringof2011,butalsothepurchaseofseveralpiecesofrecordingequipment
throughtheGraceP.Youngaward. eDepartmentalsogenerouslyfundedseveralyears
ofmygraduatestudies,alongwiththeCreoleInstitute.
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isresearchwouldalsonothavebeenpossiblewithoutthehelpofmycontacts
in French Guiana. While I cannot mention most of them by name without violating
the confidentiality of my speakers’ identities, I will do my best to accurately describe
theircontributions. MylandladyClaudeeconnectedmetoalargenumberofHaitians,
students and adults alike, including the two speakers whose speech is studied in great
depth in this dissertation. Beyond her contributions to this dissertation, she and her
partnershowedmetheculturalbeautyofFrenchGuianaandmadeitahomeawayfrom
home. e Haitian Consul in Cayenne provided me with a hard to find copy of a movie
made by Haitians in French Guiana about their difficulties in the region, helping me
beer understand what life was like in the capital. My consultants for Guianese proved
invaluable resources about grammatical paerns in the language. e IUFM of French
Guianagraciouslyprovidedmewithspaceandlogisticalassistanceformypilotproject.
Lastly,Ithankmytwospeakers,RéginalandMichel,fortheirgenerosityandwillingness
tosharetheirtimeandlanguagewithme.
A special thanks goes to Solfis Telfort, who did the initial transcription of all
interviews, from the initial exploratory trip to this dissertation. Without his excellent
work, this dissertation would have been immeasurably more difficult. Another special
thanksgoestotheDissertationWritingSupportgroupatIndianaUniversity,whoseen-
couragement and shared struggles gave me perspective, comfort, and added motivation
tocontinueonwiththearduousanddeeplygratifyingtaskoffinishingthedissertation.
Finally, I must thank my family. My parents, Jerry and Cathy, provided me with
financial and emotional support to take on a project of this magnitude. My sister Kim
taught me the tricks of living graduate student life cheaply. And last but not least is my
partnerMa,whosecourageandaffectionhavebeenaconstantsourceofinspiration.
v
JasonF.Siegel
NOUOBLIJEPALEMO-TO:
CODE-SWITCHINGBETWEENHAITIANANDGUIANESEFRENCHCREOLESAND
THEIRLEXIFIERINFRENCHGUIANA
etheoriesandmethodologiesdevelopedtoanalyzeintrasententialcode-switch-
ing were developed to account for switching between clearly distinct languages. ey
seek to describe the constraints on intrasentential code-switching, essentially trying to
account for how languages with very different structures can fit together in a single
sentence. In this dissertation, I take a different approach, looking at languages that are
much more closely related, namely French, Haitian Creole and Guianese Creole. ese
languages pose a special challenge because not only do they closely match each other
in terms of phonology, but their morphology is frequently similar as well, which can
maketheidentificationofswitchpointshighlydifficulttoascertain. Totestthetheories,
Istartbyreviewingabroadswathofliteraturerelevanttocode-switchingamongclosely
related varieties, including dialect contact and acquisition phenomena, as well as theo-
ries of language production and code-switching. I examine the social seing of creoles
and their lexifier in contact in French Guiana. I also provide a grammatical sketch of
the important differences among the varieties in question. In the major chapter of the
dissertation, using the speech of Haitian immigrants in French Guiana as a test case, I
look at a variety of possible code-switches that test the major claims of two models of
code-switching, to see whether they can account for switches that occur between vari-
eties that are not clearly distinct. I find that the theories as they exist now adequately—
but not perfectly— account for code-switching in this circumstance. As a result, I pro-
poseanewlineofinquiryforsociolinguisticvariationusingpsycholinguisticmethodsto
evaluatewhetherlanguage-internalvariationiscode-switchingbetweensubgrammars.
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Table of Contents
Anowledgments iv
Abstract v
TableofContents vii
ListofFigures xi
ListofTables xii
ListofAbbreviations xiv
ListofAppendices xv
Chapter1 Introduction 1
1.1 Languagecontactordialectcontact? 2
1.2 Mutualintelligibility 5
1.3 Contextofcontact 8
1.4 Code-switching 13
1.5 Outline 14
Chapter2 LiteratureReview 16
2.1 Dialectcontact 16
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TableofContents
2.2 Seconddialectacquisition 30
2.3 Psycholinguisticapproachestolanguageproductionandcode-
switching 32
2.4 Code-switching 46
2.4.1 eoriesofcode-switching 46
2.4.2 Code-switchingincloselyrelatedvarieties 57
2.4.3 PreviousstudiesofHaitianCreolecode-switching 62
2.5 Conclusion 74
Chapter3 Socialsettingofcontact 77
3.1 HistoryofFrenchGuiana 77
3.1.1 Slavecolony 77
3.1.2 Aerslavery: Penalcolonyandgoldrush 79
3.1.3 Departmentalization 81
3.2 HaitianmigrationintoFrenchGuiana 82
3.3 FrenchGuianatoday 85
3.4 FrenchCreoledialectsspoken 94
3.5 DialectsofGuianese 104
Chapter4 Structuralcomparisonandmethodology 107
4.1 Studydesign 107
4.1.1 Speakerselection 107
4.1.2 Transcription 110
4.1.3 Analysis 112
4.2 ComparisonofGuianeseandHaitianCreoles 112
4.2.1 Sharedfeatures 113
4.2.1.1 Phonology 113
4.2.1.2 Morphology 114
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TableofContents
4.2.1.3 Syntax 115
4.2.1.4 Semantics 118
4.2.1.5 Lexicon 119
4.2.2 PrincipaldifferencesbetweenGuianeseandHaitian 121
4.2.2.1 Phonologicaldifferences 121
4.2.2.2 Morphologicaldifferences 122
4.2.2.3 Syntacticdifferences 123
4.2.2.4 Lexicon 127
4.3 ComparisonbetweenFrenchandHaitian/Guianese 129
4.3.1 SimilaritiesbetweenFrenchandCreole 130
4.3.1.1 Phonology 130
4.3.1.2 Morphology 131
4.3.1.3 Syntax 131
4.3.1.4 Semantics 132
4.3.1.5 Lexicon 133
4.3.2 DifferencesbetweenCreoleandFrench 133
4.3.2.1 Phonology 133
4.3.2.2 Morphology 134
4.3.2.3 Syntax 135
4.3.2.4 Semantics 138
4.4 Conclusion 139
Chapter5 Results&Analysis 141
5.1 Determinationofswitches 143
5.2 Code-switches 150
5.3 Functionalandhighfrequencyitems 188
5.3.1 eindefinitearticleoun 190
5.3.2 Personalsubjectpronouns 191
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