Contenu du sommaire : Syntaxe des langues créoles [En hommage à Chris Corne] sous la direction de Daniel Véronique

Grammatical categories and creolization : creole language syntax Creoles and Pidgins, a source of controversy in linguistic theory, share some properties and, often, analogous sociohistorical circumstances, which, however, do not suffice to assert the existence of a distinct linguistic category. Theories of creole genesis vary in the importance they bestow upon pidginization, creolization, language contact and linguistic creativity. Universalist theories emphasize the role of the bioprogram or of Universal Grammar while other theories insist on the part played by the substratum, the lexifier language or the language acquisition process. The issue of grammatical categories is crucial to various theories of creole genesis, for instance those which favour the substratum or the lexifier. The present issue is devoted to grammatical categories in French Creoles through an analysis of pronouns and adjectives in these languages.

Can a creole language be described without any reference to genesis ? Pronouns and adjectives in French-based creoles Structural differences between languages do not exclude genetic links. However, this paper assumes that creolization results neither from the direct influence of substrate or superstrate languages but rather from the conjonction of various processes : self-regulation of the dominant language system, i.e. French in this case, and its impact on the emergent creole languages, and language acquisition principles. It is possible to retrace the interplay of these factors in the emergence of various creole sub-systems, for instance in the development of zf/z-words. Turning to adjectives inFrench Creoles, and after having examined various issues, the paper concludes in favour of the existence of this grammatical category in French-based creoles, although creole adjectives differ from their French counterparts as predicates.

Stative verbs and adjectives in Tayo The lexicon of tayo is French-based whereas its syntax is principally influenced by Kanak languages. In Tayo, there is a small number of pre-posed adjectives, coming distinctly from French since the Kanak languages do not allow such a word-order. Post-posed adjectives are rare. The alternative is a relative clause containing a stative verb, a Kanak pattern. The paper analyzes stative verbs found in the following context le + verb + subject and causative derivation through the use of prefix fe-+ stative verb, another Kanak pattern. Present-day bilingualism (Kanak languages-French) in the Tayo speech community determines a French or a Kanak reading of attributive (pre- and post-posed) and predicative adjectives, and stative verbs. Transfer and retention of lexifier language features are assumed to be the motor processes in the creation and evolution of new vernaculars.

The adjective in Portugese and in Kriyol : A study in comparative syntax The pre-theoretical notion "adjective" is described in terms of a combination of features as defined in Chomsky (1970), Jackendoff (1977) etc. Adjectives in Portugese, be they preposed or postposed, are shown to be lexical items that combine the features [+N] and [uV]. They are inserted in the Specifier of NP, bearing overt or non overt agreement features, and they are liable to merge with the copula [+V uN] to form a complex head. Unlike its lexifier language, Guinee-Bissau Kriyol exclusively postposes adjectives to the head noun. Arguments are adduced to show that Kriyol adjectives include [uN] and [+V] features, incorporating copula features, hence their inherent predicate status. Although both languages, Portuguese and Kriyol, possess adjectives as a linguistic category, a slight displacement in the values of the features associated with Kriyol adjectives, probably due to creolization, has had far-reaching consequences.

A note on "adjectives" in some French Creoles Creole "adjectives" differ from their French counterparts in terms of morphology - no formal variation and gender or number agreement - and of predication. The number of pre-posed adjectives in NP is low and predicative "adjectives" have diversely lost their stative properties in the creole languages examined. The verbal status of "adjectives" is directly related to the status of the copula in the languages discussed. Following the case, "adjectives" as such do not constitute a linguistic category.

Pronouns and the absence of clitic pronouns in Mauritian Creole An examination of the pronominal system of Mauritian Creole, as of other French-based creoles, reveals that while most of the strong pronouns of French have been-retained, the weak (clitic) pronouns were never acquired. An obvious question arises as to why these pronouns failed to appear in the French creoles. It is suggested here that if clitic pronouns are in effect agreement markers, as has been suggested in the literature, and are base-generated as bundles of features which are spelt out on functional heads such as Agr(S) and Agr(O), their absence in Mauritian and other French creoles can be accounted for. It is proposed that in general the spelling out of subject clitics in Agr(S) rests crucially on the presence of an overt Tense marker and the reason they failed to be spelt out in Mauritian Creole is because no overt Tense marker was available in the initial period. In the case of object clitics, their failure to be realised on Agr(O) is attributed to the strict SVO order imposed on the emerging grammar.

Striking differences between Haitian Creole (HC) and its lexifier language, French (FR), concern (inter alia) the Case-related morphology and the distribution of Object pronouns. The goal of the paper is to relate HC-vs-FR differences in object-pronoun morphosyntax to other morphosyntactic distinctions between the two languages, i.e. verb morphosyntax and inflectional morphology. As a contribution to the study of the mental processes underlying creole genesis and language change, the paper examines superstrate and substrate influence in language creation qua parameter(re)setting. It is shown that HC differs from both FR and main Kwa languages. Stark morphological differences contrast FR and HC verbs and pronouns. Inflection for Case and word-order also differentiate Fongbe and HC pronouns. Reduced inflectional morphology (as in other language-contact situations) coupled with particularly salient source-language patterns in the Primary Language Data act as triggers toward fixing particular parameters. Verb-syntax patterns make creolization quite similar to diachrony. Both sets of phenomena ultimatety reduce to UG-based constraints in language acquisition.

Creole languages do not exhibit morphosyntactic features that are specific to them, but they are related by the particular sociohistorical settings of their emergence, in language-contact situations. They provide an opportunity to scrutinize structural issues left aside in the description of other languages. This paper examines the relationship between reflexive forms and reflexive function in two creole languages, addressing the issue of reflexive forms as a grammatical category per se. Adducing some relevant evidence from Korean and Japanese, it is argued that the expression of coreference does not imply the existence of a reflexive pronominal paradigm. It is likewise pointed out on the basis of data from English that coreference can also be expressed through the same morphosyntactic devices used for emphatic and contrastive reference. Data from Bantu languages are cited to illustrate the discrepancy between the existence of a reflexive function and the non-existence of reflexive forms. In the case of French-based creoles, it is argued that Mauritian has no reflexive pronouns whereas Haitian has developed a specific marker for reflexive function, possessive marker + tet + N. The status of these forms as reflexive pronouns is unclear.