The Workshop on Language Variation & Change presents

JACKIE BUNTING (Linguistics, University of Chicago)

Friday, December 10, 2010 @ 3 p.m., Karen Landahl Center

“From model to creole: Lessons from Sranan Comparatives”

Abstract:

Traditionally, Sranan comparative constructions which feature an exceed or surpass verb  have been analyzed as serial verb constructions, in keeping with the substrate serial comparatives that they are assumed to be modeled after. Likewise, Sranan particle comparatives are assumed to function in a manner similar to that seen in the superstrate models English and Dutch. Curiously, little work has gone into exploring the ways in which Sranan comparatives – or creole comparatives in general – exhibit behaviors which differ from those observed of the structures which served as models. In this talk I consider these Sranan comparative strategies against those found in Ewe, a representative language of the Gbe substrate, and English and Dutch in order to determine whether there is reason to believe that creole strategies are exact replicas of the models, and what this can tell us about how creolization may have progressed in the case of this Surinamese plantation creole.