Retained inflectional morphology in pidgins: A typological study

Abstract

It is commonly accepted that the process of pidginization leads to a loss of inflectional morphology, but this loss is often not total. Lexifier inflections instead follow a cline of reduction: full retention -partial retention -partial lexicalization -full lexicalization -full loss. This article examines the retention of inflection in 29 languages that reflect a history of pidginization in their devel

Inflectional morphology restructuring in ache - discussing grammatical change and language contact in tupí-guaraní subgroup - 1

“…details regarding the continuity and discontinuity in tense-aspect-mood (tAM) morphology, differential object case marking (doM) and verbal agreement will be provided. furthermore, inflectional morphology retention, reinterpretation and erosion are debated in the light of current research on diachronic grammatical change and language contact (roberts;Bresnan, 2008). And finally, i summarize the current findings and point to future research on the Ache language and aspects of language contact within the tG family.…”

“…At this point two observations should be uncontroversial: first, Ache lost far more formatives belonging to the contextual than to the inherent type of inflection, a common feature for contact induced language change according to roberts and Bresnan (2008). these elements are encoded predominantly via prefixation in tG grammars, precisely the type of morphology that fell out or shows no functional productivity in Ache grammar.…”

“…nevertheless, linguists have compiled at least some common features regarding morphosyntax (Holm, 2008;roberts;Bresnan, 2008;thomason;Kaufman, 1991). overall shared characteristics seem to be the lack of inflectional morphology, a tendency towards analytic rather than synthetic structures, and the employment of word order constraints instead of bound formatives to encode grammatical relations.…”

“…A possible explanation may be provided in roberts and Bresnan (2008). the authors not only give evidence for the existence of inflectional morphology in CLs but also discuss more detailed "patterns in retention of inflectional morphology across contact languages that experienced processes of structural reduction in their genesis " (roberts;Bresnan, 2008, p. 271).…”

“…the authors not only give evidence for the existence of inflectional morphology in CLs but also discuss more detailed "patterns in retention of inflectional morphology across contact languages that experienced processes of structural reduction in their genesis " (roberts;Bresnan, 2008, p. 271). this paper focuses on the comparative description of morphosyntactic data sets related to inflectional morphology erosion and restructuring in Ache when compared to the better-studied Guarani language cluster.…”