Research

Ohio State Dissertations in Linguistics (OSDL)

Bettina Migge (1998)

Substrate Influence in the Formation of the Surinamese Plantation Creole: A Consideration of Sociohistorical Data and Linguistic Data from Ndyuka and Gbe

Advisor: Donald Winford

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Abstract:

In the literature on creole languages two main positions have emerged on the origin of creole grammar: First, creole grammar is derived from the human blue-print for language. Second, creole grammar is primarily modeled on the grammar of the first languages of its creators. Despite continued discussions about the origin of creole grammar, little substantial evidence has, however, been brought froward in support of either position.

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the discussion about the origin of creole grammar by exploring the role of the African substrate in the formation of one particular creole, the Surinamese Plantation Creole (SPC). Specifically, this study addresses three issues related to this question: (i) the nature of the substrate input, (ii) the degree of its involvement, and (iii) the mechanisms that gave rise to it. Following the methodology for proving contact-induced language change proposed by Thomason and Kaufman (1988) and Thomason (1993), this study determines the role of the substrate in the formation of the SPC on the basis of a sociohistorical analysis of the contact setting in which the SPC arose and on the basis of a detailed comparison of two subsystems of grammar, serial verb constructions and copular and ascriptive constructions, in the modern descendants of the SPC and its putative substrate.

The sociohistorical analysis and the linguistic analysis both strongly suggest that the Obe group of languages was the primary substrate language and the primary linguistic input to the formation of the SPC. The primary mechanisms involved in the formation of the SPC were retention of abstract syntactic patterns from the first language(s) of the creators of the SPC and borrowing of mainly lexical items from the second language and pidgin varieties of English which served as secondary linguistic inputs to the formation of the SPC. The study also suggests that other mechanisms such as reduction, regularization, and extension which are commonly found to operate in all contact settings also played a role in the formation of the SPC.