Table Of ContentThe Syntax of Jamaican Creole
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA)
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA) provides a platform for original monograph
studies into synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Studies in LA confront empirical
and theoretical problems as these are currently discussed in syntax, semantics,
morphology, phonology, and systematic pragmatics with the aim to establish robust
empirical generalizations within a universalistic perspective.
General Editors
Werner Abraham Elly van Gelderen
University of Vienna / Rijksuniversiteit Arizona State University
Groningen
Advisory Editorial Board
Cedric Boeckx Christer Platzack
Harvard University University of Lund
Guglielmo Cinque Ian Roberts
University of Venice Cambridge University
Günther Grewendorf Lisa deMena Travis
J.W. Goethe-University, Frankfurt McGill University
Liliane Haegeman Sten Vikner
University of Lille, France University of Aarhus
Hubert Haider C. Jan-Wouter Zwart
University of Salzburg University of Groningen
Volume 127
The Syntax of Jamaican Creole. A cartographic perspective
by Stephanie Durrleman-Tame
The Syntax of Jamaican Creole
A cartographic perspective
Stephanie Durrleman-Tame
University of Geneva
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The syntax of Jamaican Creole : a cartographic perspective / Stephanie Durrleman-Tame.
p. cm. (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, issn 0166-0829 ; v. 127)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Creole dialects, English--Jamaica--Syntax. 2. Creole dialects, English--Jamaica--
Variation. I. Durrleman, Stephanie.
PM7874.J3S96 2008
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Table of contents
Acknowledgements ix
Preface
0.1 A Tribute to Miss Lou (1919–2006) xi
chapter 1
Introduction 1
1.1 The Jamaican continuum 1
1.2 Motivation for the present study 6
1.3 Orthography 10
1.4 Pidgin versus Creole 10
1.5 Theoretical framework 13
1.6 Organization of the book 14
chapter 2
IP – The articulation of inflection in Jamaican Creole 19
2.1 Introduction 19
2.2 The architecture of the clause 19
2.2.1 The split-infl hypothesis 19
2.2.2 Cinque (1999) 20
2.2.2.1 A hierarchy of adverbial classes 20
2.2.2.2 Bound functional morphemes 22
2.2.2.3 Free functional morphemes 23
2.3 The articulation of inflection in JC 24
2.3.1 The preverbal markers 25
2.3.2 Modals 26
2.3.2.1 Mod(al) 1 26
2.3.2.2 Mod(al)s 2 & 3 27
2.3.3 Tense 28
2.3.3.1 Past tense 28
2.3.3.2 Future tense 29
2.3.4 Modals, tense and aspect 30
2.3.4.1 Mod1, T and Asp 30
2.3.4.2 Mod 2 & 3 and T 30
The syntax of Jamaican Creole: A cartographic perspective
2.3.5 Asp(ect) markers 32
2.3.5.1 Progressive aspect 33
2.3.5.2 Prospective aspect 33
2.3.5.3 Retrospective aspect 34
2.3.5.4 Completive aspect and anterior 34
2.3.5.5 Continuative and frequentative aspects 39
2.4 Overall order for TMA markers in JC 41
2.5 Theoretical issues 41
2.5.1 Completive aspect in JC and Fongbè: An SVC approach 41
2.5.2 Completive aspect in JC and Fongbè: VP-movement 44
2.5.2.1 Problem for the VP-movement analysis 53
2.5.3 Multiple base generation of Anterior tense 54
2.5.4 Movement of (extensions of) VP across anterior 55
2.6 Overt functional structure of JC: Evidence for the framework
in Cinque (1999) 58
2.7 Conclusion 59
chapter 3
CP – The left periphery in Jamaican Creole 61
3.1 Introduction 61
3.1.1 Theoretical background: Split-CP (Rizzi 1997) 61
3.2 JC topicalization 66
3.2.1 Topicalization in main clauses 66
3.2.2 Topicalization in embedded clauses 67
3.2.3 The Nature of TopP 68
3.2.4 De 70
3.3 JC focus 74
3.3.1 Focussing in main clauses 74
3.3.2 Focussing in embedded clauses 77
3.3.3 The nature of [Spec, FocP] in JC 77
3.4 JC wh-questions 83
3.5 Identifying Force° and Fin° in JC 89
3.5.1 Force° 90
3.5.1.1 se 90
3.5.1.2 Additonal evidence for ForceP 98
3.5.2 Fin° 99
3.6 The relative orders of topic, focus and wh-constituents in JC 100
3.7 The status of a 101
3.7.1 Progressive a 102
3.7.2 Prepositional a 102
Table of contents
3.7.3 Determiner a 103
3.7.4 Equative a 104
3.7.4.1 Focus/Interrogative a as equative a 104
3.7.4.2 Why focus/interrogative a cannot be
analysed as equative a 106
3.7.5 A structural analysis of Foc/Wh a in JC 114
3.8 Conclusion 120
chapter 4
DP – JC nominals and their extended projection 123
4.0 Introduction 123
4.1 The framework: Functional structure in the DP 123
4.2 The extended projection of nominals in JC 127
4.2.1 D(eterminer) P(rojection) 127
4.2.1.1 [+ Def] 127
4.2.1.2 [−Def] 127
4.2.2 K(Case) P(rojection) 128
4.2.3 N(ume)ral P(rojection) 131
4.2.3.1 Wan 131
4.2.4 Num(ber)P: Som 133
4.2.5 Q(uantifier) P(hrase) 136
4.2.5.1 Reduplication of numerals: Distributive 136
4.2.5.2 Evri 138
4.2.5.2.1 Distributive evri 138
4.2.5.2.2 Collective evri 138
4.2.5.3 Reduplication of adjectives:
Adjectival Focus 141
4.2.6 Dem(onstrative) P(hrase) 144
4.2.6.1 Demonstratives and articles 144
4.2.6.2 Demonstratives and deictics 146
4.2.6.3 Demonstratives and accompanying deictics
in JC – an analysis 149
4.2.7 Plurality and inclusiveness: Cl(assifier) P(hrase) 154
4.2.8 Adj(ectival) P(hrase) 159
4.2.8.1 A cartography of AdjPs 159
4.2.8.2 JC adjectives 161
4.3 Nominal structure and telicity 162
4.3.1 Nominal marking and temporal interpretations 163
4.3.1.1 Direct objects and tense 163
4.3.2 Previous accounts 166
The syntax of Jamaican Creole: A cartographic perspective
4.3.2.1 Tenny (1987): Grammaticalizing aspect
and affectedness 166
4.3.2.2 Fitzpatrick (2005): The factative effect 170
4.3.3 Nominal structure and telicity effects in JC: An account 174
4.4 Conclusion 176
chapter 5
Conclusion 179
References 181
Index of names 187
Index of subjects 189
Acknowledgements
My first word of thanks goes to Luigi Rizzi, for his continued interest in my research
over the years. I am also indebted to Liliane Haegeman, Eric Haeberli, Enoch
Aboh, Genoveva Puskas, Ur Shlonsky and Luigi Rizzi for giving me inspirational
classes in linguistics at various stages of my studies at the University of Geneva –
the stimulating environment which they created planted the seed in me that
ultimately resulted in this book. Thanks are also due to Eric Haeberli, Christopher
Laenzlinger, Kleanthes Grohmann, Greg Ellison, and Genoveva Puskas for useful
comments and criticisms on different parts of the draft, and to Ur Shlonsky for
being an office-mate always ready to discuss new ideas. Sections of this work were
presented at the conferences of the Society of Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, held
in Honolulu (2003) and Boston (2004), as well as at the meeting of the Groupe de
Recherche sur les Grammaires Créoles in Paris (2006), and this research has there-
fore benefited from the fruitful discussions provided by the audiences. This book
is a revised version of my dissertation, submitted at the University of Geneva in
2007. I am therefore grateful to the members of my committee: Luigi Rizzi, Enoch
Aboh, Guglielmo Cinque, Eric Haeberli, Ur Shlonsky and Eric Wehrli. Many
thanks to Christine Phillips, Evelyn Miller, Maureen Heron, Joseph Farquharson,
Leah DePass, and Deborah DePass for providing meticulous feedback on the
data here considered. Of course all remaining inadequacies are my own. Finally,
I would like to express gratitude to my parents, Jennifer and Tony Tame, for en-
couragement and emotional support, and in particular to my husband, Mathieu
Durrleman, for making it all possible. This work is dedicated to my sons, Raphaël,
Ezéchiel and Samuel.
