Table Of ContentWilliam Jennings / Stefan Pfänder
Towards a Usage-Based Account
of French Guianese Creole
Inheritance and Innovation in a Colonial
Language
William Jennings · Stefan Pfänder
Inheritance and
Innovation in a
Colonial Language
Towards a Usage-Based Account
of French Guianese Creole
William Jennings Stefan Pfänder
University of Waikato Universität Freiburg
Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand Freiburg, Germany
ISBN 978-3-319-61951-4 ISBN 978-3-319-61952-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61952-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017949460
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Chapter 3 is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). For further details see license information in the chapter.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
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The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
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Cover credit: Stefan Pfänder
Cover design by Fatima Jamadar
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Acknowledgements
Many, many thanks to the people of French Guiana whose invalu-
able help made this project a reality. Special thanks are due to our host
family Némor and all their friends and relatives, and also to Louis
Honorien.
We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful com-
ments. Thanks also to the many staff members of libraries and archives
who have helped with this project.
We thank the German Research Foundation for its support (DFG-
GRK1624 Frequency effects in Language).
This book would not have been possible without the skilful help of
students, friends and colleagues (listed in chronological order of their
contributions to the manuscript over the last three years): Jeff Siegel,
Juan Ennis, Anna Babel, Eva Pereira, Susanne Yow-Sin-Cheung,
Hannah Davidson, Julia Vagg, Hiltrud Junker-Lemm, Monika Schulz,
Maximilian Feichtner, Robin Oldenzeel, Philipp Bödingmeier, Daniel
Muz, Manuel Tietze, Philipp Freyburger, Ryan DeLaney, Stephanie
Boye, Daniel Alcón, Pascale Jenss and Fiona Martin.
We dedicate this work to our families.
v
Contents
1 Introduction: A Dual Approach 1
References 4
2 History: The Creation of French Guianese Creole 7
2.1 Background: Historiography, Geography and the
Linguistic Situation Today 8
2.1.1 Reconstructing Creole History 8
2.1.2 French Guiana’s Setting 11
2.1.3 French Guiana: Current Linguistic Situation 12
2.2 Origins of the French Guianese Population 13
2.2.1 Native Americans 13
2.2.2 Western and West Central Africa 17
2.2.3 France and French Colonies 20
2.3 The Creation of French Guianese Creole 25
2.3.1 The First Slaves and Language Contact on
Cayenne Island 27
2.3.2 More Gbe Slaves Arrive 32
2.3.3 French Replaces Portuguese 38
2.3.4 A Gbe-Speaking Slave Population 41
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viii Contents
2.3.5 A Linguistically Mixed Slave Community 44
2.3.6 Conventionalisation 51
2.3.7 Daily Life on a Plantation in French Guiana
in 1690 55
2.3.8 The Emergence of French Guianese Creole 69
2.4 Conclusion 71
References 72
3 Linguistics: Inheritance and Innovation in French
Guianese Creole 83
3.1 Theoretical Framework and Corpus Data 83
3.1.1 Introduction 83
3.1.2 Inheritance and Innovation 84
3.1.3 Experience Counts: The Usage-Based
Linguistics Framework 86
3.1.4 How Experience Counts in Contact: Four
Types of Linguistic Transfer 91
3.1.5 Data and Sources for French Guianese Creole 95
3.2 Noun Phrase 98
3.2.1 Indefinite Article 98
3.2.2 Definite Article 101
3.2.3 Demonstrative 105
3.2.4 Personal Pronouns 107
3.2.5 Possessives 107
3.3 Verb Phrase 109
3.3.1 Introduction 109
3.3.2 The Zero Marker: Perfective Aspect 109
3.3.3 Ka: Progressive Aspect 114
3.3.4 Stative vs. Dynamic Verbs 116
3.3.5 Completive Aspect: Fin (and Kaba ) 121
3.3.6 Té, the Only Tense Marker in FGC 124
3.3.7 Tense and/or Mood: The Markers Ké and Wa 128
3.3.8 Aspect in FGC: A Case of Functional
Transfer? 130
3.3.9 Modality: Can and Must 134
3.3.10 Imperative 138
Contents ix
3.4 Sentence Structure 139
3.4.1 Copula Constructions 139
3.4.2 Negation 141
3.4.3 Predicate Doubling 144
3.4.4 Comparative Marking 146
3.4.5 Comitative and Additive 147
3.4.6 Nominal Coreference 148
3.4.7 Wh-Questions 150
3.4.8 Relative Clauses 153
3.5 Results and Discussion 155
3.5.1 Revisiting the Four Types of Transfer 155
3.5.2 A Usage-Based Perspective on Creole
Grammar 164
References 167
4 Conclusion 177
Reference 179
Appendix 181
Bibliography 235
Index 237
List of Tables
Table 2.1 Communication in Cayenne in 1660 31
Table 2.2 The Cayenne 1677 census 49
Table 2.3 The slaves of the Rémire plantation in May 1690 57
Table 2.4 Slave deaths on the Rémire plantation 1688–1690 62
Table 2.5 Stillbirths recorded on the Rémire plantation 1688–1690 62
Table 2.6 Origins of the African-born slaves of Rémire 65
Table 2.7 The Creoles of the Rémire plantation in 1690 67
Table 3.1 Personal pronouns in FGC 107
xi
Abbreviations
Languages
FGC French Guianese Creole
MAC Martinican Creole
Archives
AN French National Archives, Colonies Section
JA Jesuit Archives, Vanves, France
Linguistic glosses
1 First person
2 Second person
3 Third person
COMP Complementiser
COMPAR Comparative
COMPL Completive
xiii
