Negation and its bearing on creole genesis

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21248/hpsg.2021.16

Abstract

For the past 20 years, the question of a ˋˋcreole prototype'' has been at the center of heated debates. Among features that are claimed to be typical of creole formation is the placement of negation, which usually appears preceding tense, aspect and mood markers (e.g. McWhorter 2018). In this paper, I examine diachronic data, in particular, French compound tenses and show that the position of negation in at least French-related creoles is nothing but the result of regular grammaticalization given input. As such the expression of negation typically exemplifies coalescence of the already grammaticalized negator pas into an inflectional exponent in the creoles.

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Published

2021-11-18

How to Cite

Henri, Fabiola. 2021. Negation and its bearing on creole genesis. Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar 300–318. (doi:10.21248/hpsg.2021.16) (https://proceedings.hpsg.xyz/article/view/894) (Accessed October 30, 2024.)