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Article published In: Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages
Vol. 40:2 (2025) ► pp.338–380

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Noun phrases in Kwéyòl Donmnik

ORCiD logo with link | University of South CarolinaColumbia
Published online: 22 February 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.00136.pel
Abstract
Though Creole nominal systems have been intensely researched, in-context, corpus-based examinations are uncommon, and there are Creole languages whose noun phrases remain understudied. I use a corpus of conversational data and a pattern-building task designed to elicit demonstrative and definite noun phrases, exophoric reference, and co-speech pointing gestures to explore the noun phrase in Kwéyòl Donmnik, an endangered, understudied French lexifier Creole. I focus on noun phrases that are bare, marked by the post-nominal determiners definite la ‘the’ or demonstrative sa-la ‘this/that’, or accompanied by the pre-nominal indefinite determiner yon ‘a(n)’. Results pinpoint the readings conveyed by each noun phrase type, identify the word categories of their nouns, and address similarities in usage between definite la and demonstrative sa-la.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Key concepts
    • 2.1Uniqueness/inclusiveness
    • 2.2Familiarity/identifiability
    • 2.3Specificity/referentiality
    • 2.4Demonstratives and generics
  • 3.Overview of noun phrases in French lexifier Creoles
    • 3.1The indefinite determiner
    • 3.2Definite and demonstrative determiners
    • 3.3More than one la
    • 3.4Plural marking
    • 3.5Bare nouns
  • 4.Fieldwork methodology
  • 5.Coding methodology
    • 5.1Coding the conversation task
    • 5.2Coding the Stacks and Squares task
    • 5.3Atlas.ti tools
  • 6.Results and discussion
    • 6.1Bare nouns
    • 6.2Indefinites with yon
    • 6.3Demonstratives with sa-la
    • 6.4Definites with la (and sé)
    • 6.5Word categories
    • 6.6Stacks and squares results: La and sa-la
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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