The Domestic Hypothesis, Diffusion and Componentiality. An Account of Atlantic Anglophone Creole Origins

Hancock, Ian

doi:10.1075/cll.1.06han

Cited by 77 publications

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“…I return to this in Section 3. Hancock (1969), Dillard (1972Dillard ( , 1985, and McCrum et al (1986) also emphasize the likely contribution of an antecedent maritime, or nautical, En glish jargon to the development of the new colonial varieties. Like Le Page (1960) and Le Page & Tabouret-Keller (1985), Dillard (1985Dillard ( , 1992 invokes the high proportion of nautical terms to support this position.…”

Section: Creole Genesis: What the Histories Of Individual Colonies Sumentioning

confidence: 90%

“…That is, the vast majority of the (early) colonists came from the lower strata of European societies. As much of their correspondence also indi cates (e.g., Eliason 1956), they spoke nonstandard varieties, inherited by the 6 The complementary hypothesis has also been associated with such names as Baker & Corne (1986), Baker (1993), and Hancock (1986, although we do not articulate our positions in quite the same way, especially as to how we see the bioprogram operating. For instance, both Baker and Hancock saw the bioprogram in competition with substrate and superstrate influences, whereas Mufwene (1990b) did not.…”

Section: Creole Genesis: What the Histories Of Individual Colonies Sumentioning

confidence: 92%

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The Founder Principle in Creole Genesis

Mufwene

1996

DIA

382

131

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SUMMARYIn this paper, the author discusses one of the aspects of creole genesis from a population genetics perspective, analogizing 'language' with 'population' (rather than 'organism', the tradition in linguistics) and 'linguistic feature' with 'gene'. With language contact analogized to population contact, individual speakers are given a greater role than traditionally accorded them in the literature and variation within language is made more natural. Like genes, linguistic features are shown as competing with each other for selection into creoles' systems, in the different, though similar, ecologies of individual language contacts. It is argued here that the founder populations, including speakers of both lexifiers and substrate languages, played greater roles than hitherto considered in determining which specific features received selective advantage over their competitors during the formation of creoles. The Founder Principle explains why some European languages in their nonstandard forms became the principal lexifiers when others could have and why some specific features prevailed in the new systems. The competition-of-features perspective allows deterministic influences of both the lexifiers and substrate languages, thanks to convergence and other markedness principles, with the bioprogram qua Universal Grammar serving as the body of principles regulating the development of the new vernaculars.RÉSUMÉDans cet article l'auteur discute un des aspects de la genèse des creoles du point de vue de la génétique des populations. Il y compare la notion de 'langue' à celle de 'population' (plutôt qu'à celle d"organisme', la tradition en linguistique) et celle de 'trait linguistique' à celle de 'gène'. Cette comparaison du contact de langues à celui de populations accorde aux locuteurs un rôle plus grand qu'il n'est de coutume dans la littérature; la variation dans la langue se montre ainsi plus naturelle. Comme les gènes, les traits linguistiques se présentent en compétition mutuelle pour être sélectionnés dans les systèmes des creoles, dans des écologies différentes, bien que semblables, des contacts langagiers individuels. Selon mon hypothèse, la population fondatrice, y compris les locuteurs autant des langues lexificatrices que des langues substrates, ont joué des rôles plus importants qu'on leur reconnaît à présent en déterminant quels traits spécifiques ont eu un avantage sélectif par rapport à leurs alternatives pendant la formation des creoles. Le Principe Fondateur explique pourquoi quelques langues européennes dans leurs formes non standard sont devenues les principales lexificatrices, plutôt que d'autres langues qui auraient pu faire autant, et pourqoi quelques traits spécifiques se sont imposés dans les nouveaux systèmes. La perspective de la compétition des traits rend possible des influences déterministes à la fois des langues lexificatrices que des langues substrates, étant donné la convergence de certains de leurs traits et grace à d'autres principes sur lesquels est basé l'opposition marqué/non marqué. La Grammaire Universelle fonctionne dans mon hypothèse comme un corps de principes régissant le développement des nouveaux vernaculaires.ZUSAMMENFASSUNGIm vorliegende Beitrag diskutiert der Autor einen Aspekt der Genese von Kreolsprachen aus der Sicht einer Bevölkerungsgenetik, dabei eine Analogie zwischen 'Sprache' und 'Population' (anstelle von 'Organismus', wie es in der Linguistik Tradition ist) und zwischen 'sprachlicher Erscheinung' und 'Gen' herstellend. Wenn Sprachkontakt mit Populationskontakt in Analogie gesetzt wird, erhalten die Einzelprecher eine größere Rolle als ihnen gewöhnlich in der Forschung zuerkannt werden, und Variation innerhalb einer Sprache wird auf diese Weise ein weit natürlicherer Vorgang. Genen vergleichbar, konkurrieren linguïstische Eigenschaften untereinander um die Auswahl für das System einer Kreolsprache innerhalb der verschiedenen, wenngleich ähnlichen, 'Ökologien' individueller Sprachkontakte. Es wird hier die Behauptung aufgestellt, daß die 'Gründungspopulationen', inklusive der Sprecher von sowohl lexifizierenden als auch Substratsprachen, größere Rollen spielen als man bisher bei der Bestim-mung berücksichtigt hat, welche besondere Eigenschaften selektive Vorteile gegenüber anderen bei der Herausbildung von Kreolsprachen erhalten haben. Das 'Gründerprinzip' erklärt, weshalb einige europäische Sprachen in ihren nicht-standardisierten Formen die hauptsachlichen Lieferanten von Wortstruk-turen geworden sind, wenn andere es hatten werden können, und weshalb gewisse Eigenschaften in diesen neuem System die Oberhand gewannen. Der Gesichts-punkt eines Wettkampfs zwischen Eigenschaften ermöglicht bestimmbare Ein-flüsse auf sowohl von lexifizierenden als auch Substratsprachen, und zwar dank einer Konvergenz und anderer Merkmalprinzipien, wobei ein 'Bioprogramm' oder eine Universaliengrammatik als die Grundlage dazu dient, die Entwicklung neuer Volkssprachen zu regulieren.

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Section: Creole Genesis: What the Histories Of Individual Colonies Sumentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Creole Genesis: What the Histories Of Individual Colonies Sumentioning

confidence: 92%

The Founder Principle in Creole Genesis

Mufwene

1996

DIA

382

131

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“…Finally, the relexification hypothesis (cf., e.g., Hancock, 1986Hancock, , 1987Smith, 1987;andMcWhorter, 1994a, 1994b) advances the proposal that the Atlantic creoles were in fact formed in Africa -presumably as a result of early commercial, and eventually familial, contact between Europeans and Africans in the early 17th century. Hancock (1986, pp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Tone Sandhi in Saramaccan

Ham

1999

JPCL

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This paper examines high tone sandhi in Saramaccan, an Atlantic creole spoken in the Surinamese interior, as described by Voorhoeve (1961) and Rountree (1972a). In particular, a comparison is drawn with a similar tonal phenomenon in the Anlo dialect of Ewe (Ghana: Western Gbe) as reported by Clements (1978). Tone sandhi domains in both languages are argued to be delineated by the left edges of maximal projection edges in the syntax. Cross-linguistic work on edge-based mapping relations between syntax and phonology (e.g., Clements, 1978; Selkirk, 1986; Chen, 1987; Odden, 1987) has shown that the shape as well as the use of syntactically-derived prosodic domains varies widely. Similarities as well as differences between Anlo Ewe and Saramaccan tone sandhi environments are examined in light of the sub-stratist and universalist hypotheses of creole genesis, leading to the conclusion that a less polemic view, such as that suggested by Mufwene (1986), provides the best account.

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“…This means, for one thing, that it is highly unlikely that the lan guages under consideration could have had their origin in a DU proto-Pidgin, -in contrast to the scenario proposed for the French-related Creoles (Goodman 1964) as well as for the English-related ones (Hancock 1986, Smith 1987. Since the DU-related languages differ from each other, and also do not always correspond to what are thought of as "typical" creole languages, the explanatory force of the grammatical properties of DU, the common lexifier language, is seen to be limited.…”

Section: General Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 61%

The Creolization of Dutch

Bruyn

Veenstra

1993

JPCL

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The aim of this article is a systematic investigation of certain grammatical aspects of three languages that came about as by-products of colonial expansion of the Dutch during the seventeenth century: Afrikaans, Negerhollands, and Berbice Dutch. The discussion is centered on three grammatical features that have played an important role either in creolis-tics or in theoretical linguistics: TMA-marking, adpositional phrases, and passive constructions. Since seventeenth-century Dutch is the common lexifier, this language is also taken into account in the overall comparison. It is shown that the three languages related to Dutch form a less homogeneous group than do some of the creoles related to English and French. The main conclusion is that while processes at work during creoli-zation do not have to be uniform and may have different outcomes, the social circumstances existing in the different contact situations constitute a significant factor in the development of the emerging contact languages.

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The Domestic Hypothesis, Diffusion and Componentiality. An Account of Atlantic Anglophone Creole Origins

Cited by 77 publications

References 0 publications

The Founder Principle in Creole Genesis

The Founder Principle in Creole Genesis

Tone Sandhi in Saramaccan

The Creolization of Dutch

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