MA in English Language
L62A — Comparative Caribbean English – lexicon Creole
Credits:
3
Duration:
39 hours
Evaluation:
- 1 Short Research Paper (40%)
- 1 Final Examination (2 hours) (60%)
Rationale
Students in this programme require a course which gives them the exposure they need to teach, at post-secondary level, courses which cover the nature of Caribbean Creole languages, English-lexicon ones in particular, their vocabulary and structure, the ways that these differ from the European language from which they have derived the bulk of their vocabulary, and the historical processes linked to the development of these Creole languages.
Aims
The course is aimed at having students compare Caribbean English-lexicon Creole languages, based on hands-on use of the entire range of data sources, as well as the academic works which describe particular languages or linguistic features. At the end of the course, students should demonstrate:
- the ability to use the range of sources available to do comparative research on these languages,
- the ability to present simple but linguistically sound descriptions of the major features shared by these languages,
- a knowledge of the range of formal and structural similarities and differences across these languages as well as the a real, dialect cluster and/or socio-historical factors which explain these.
Content
The course will cover similarities and difference in both form and in function. This it will do against a background of examining the proposed historical explanations for the similarities and differences between these languages. The course will cover:
- Definitions of lingua franca, pidgin, creole, (non)standard language, dialect, etc.
- Examination of what distinguishes English-lexicon Creole languages from Creole languages of other lexical bases.
- The Tools for a Comparative Grammar: literary sources, dictionaries, non-linguists' descriptions, linguists' descriptions, internet resources, use of native speaker informants.
- Comparative Lexical Inventories.
- Comparative Phonology: phoneme inventories, syllable structures, morpho-phonemic alternants, suprasegmentals.
- Comparative Morphology: reduplication, compounding, affixation, the applicability of the typological classification 'isolating language'.
- Word Classes: multifunctionality, the relevance of the adjective/verb distinction, verbs as prepositions, nouns as postpositions, the prepositions/postposition relationship.
- Pronominal systems: personal pronouns, demonstratives, case marking.
- Noun Phrase Structures: marking (in) definiteness, pluralisation, and the generic.
- The Predicate Phrase: argument structures, passivisation, serial verbs.
- Tense and Aspect.
- Modality and Negation.
- Reduplication
Reading List
- Alleyne, M. 1980 Comparative Afro-American: Karoma Press, Ann Arbor.
- Bailey, B. 1966 Jamaican Creole Syntax: A Transformational Approach. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- Baker, P & A. Syea 1991 Changing Meanings, Changing Function: Papers Relating to the Grammaticalisation in Language Functions. University of Westminster Press, London.
- Baker, P. & A Bruyn 1998 St. Kitts and the Atlantic Creoles: The Texts of Samuel Augustus Matthews in Perspective. University of Westminster Press, London.
- Carlin, E. & J. Arends 2002, Atlas of the Languages of Suriname. Ian Randle Publishers, Kingston.
- Edwards, W. & D. Winford (eds) 1991 Verb Phrase Patterns in Black English and Creole. Wayne State University Press, Detroit.
- Gorlach, M. & J. Holm 1986 Focus on the Caribbean. John Benjamins, Amsterdam.
- Holm, J. 1983, Central American English. Julius Groos Verlag, Heidelberg.
- Holm, J. 1989, Pidgin and Creole Languages. Vols. 1 & 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- Huber, M. & M. Parkvall 1999, Spreading the Word: The Issue of Diffusion among the Atlantic Creoles. University of Westminster Press, London.
- McWhorter, J. 1997, Towards a New Model of Creole Genesis. Peter Lang Publishing
- Mufwene, S. 2001, The Ecology of Language, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
- Muhleisen, Susanne 2002 Creole Discourse: Exploring Prestige Formation & Change Across Caribeean English-lexicon Creole. John Benjamins, Amsterdam.
- Taylor, D. 1976, Languages of the West Indies. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
|
