Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages - Volume 3, Issue 2, 1988

The continuous process of language mixing which takes place in the development of creole continua is particularly suited to favor the emergence of language universals. Topic-comment structures are found to be extensively used in English-based Caribbean basilects. Furthermore, topic prominence is also characteristic of the mesolectal and acrolectal va-rieties acquired by native speakers of creole vernaculars. Topic strategies are identified as they occur throughout the continuum, and in particular as they extend to other structures. More specifically, dislocation strategies are found to spread relativization through the circuitous route of relexified topic particles. It is argued that if there is a "bioprogram" (Bickerton 1981), it might be reflected not only in creole grammars, but also, and perhaps more extensively still, in the strategies represented in the contigu-ous acrolects, as well as in other situations involving conflicting linguistic systems.

Although several linguists have noted the similarities between the Atlantic Creoles and West African languages, none has systematically compared the structures of a geographically and genetically balanced sample of West African languages with a creolized language of the Atlantic Basin. This study examines the structural similarities between Nigerian Pidgin and all of the languages of southern Nigeria for which fairly comprehensive descriptions have been written to date. The results show that linguistic work on West African languages has progressed to the point where claims regarding the influence of these languages on Atlantic Creoles can be substantiated with concrete evidence from a truly representative sample of languages.

Using the texts collected by J.B.P. de Josselin de Jong as a data base, the paper describes the linguistic conditioning associated with copula forms in Negerhollands, a Dutch-lexicon Creole which was once spoken in what are now the U.S. Virgin Islands. Seven copula forms are identified: wees, bi, bin, bee, mi, a, and zero. The findings suggest that Negerhollands is similar to several other creoles in that there is a tripartite copula in the present tense; however, it is also shown that the Negerhollands copula differs from previously described language varieties.

In this paper we examine several aspects of Haitian Creole syntax in light of the recent proposal that a determiner can be the head of a minor maximal projection. We argue that an incorporation of this proposal into the analysis of several aspects of Haitian Creole syntax, including clause structure, question formation, and relative-clause formation, can resolve several puzzling problems. In addition, the paper adds to the theory of minor heads in that it shows that such heads must be considered to inherit major category features from their complements.

The English dialects spoken by the scattered white minority in the Caribbean are important in that they provide linguistic clues to the nature of the Anglophone component in the development of the Caribbean Anglophone Creoles. The British dialect sources for aspectual markers in Anglo-Caribbean English are discussed in the light of the dialect contact and mixing that was the sociolinguistic product of English colonization. Koineization in the development of Anglo-Caribbean English is argued for, with suggestions for further research involving Anglo-Caribbean English and the Caribbean Anglophone Creoles.