Cover not available

In:Language Contact, Continuity and Change in the Genesis of Modern Hebrew
Edited by Edit Doron, Malka Rappaport Hovav, Yael Reshef and Moshe Taube
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 256] 2019
► pp. 287–320

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Our creolized tongues

 | University of Amsterdam
Published online: 18 September 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.256.11abo
It is often assumed that creole languages represent ‘exceptional’ language development in which a contact language or a variety largely spoken by late L2 learners nativizes and becomes the main language of a community. It is therefore not uncommon that scholars of contact languages or revitalized languages (e.g., Hebrew) ask whether such languages are creoles or not. The common assumption is that so-called creoles exhibit certain specific linguistic features which distinguish them from other non-creolized languages, and which could be used as a yardstick to evaluate the status of other languages as creoles. But, what if any given language is a creolized form of a pre-existing language spoken by previous generations? In this paper, I argue that language acquisition always happens in a situation of contact comparable to creole contexts, in which learners are faced with heterogeneous inputs and recombine competing linguistic features into new linguistic items. Under this view, all natural languages involve a hybrid grammar. I further discuss how recombination leads to linguistic variation both at the learner’s and population level.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Everyone speaks a creolized language
  • 3.Language acquisition and creolization: Linguistic hybridism
  • 4.Recombination of syntactic features
  • 5.Capturing variation and constrains on variation during recombination
  • 6.Recombination within CP: The case of Saramaccan
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • References
References (110)
References
Aboh, Enoch O. 2002. La morphosyntaxe de la péripherie gauche nominale. In La syntaxe de la définitude, Anne Zribi-Hertz & Anne Daladier (eds), Recherches Linguistiques de Vincennes 31: 9–26.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2004. The Morphosyntax of Complement-head Sequences. Word Order Patterns in Kwa. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2005. Deriving relative and factive constructions in Kwa. In Contributions to the Thirtieth Incontro di Grammatica Generativa, Laura Brugè, Giuliana Giusti, Nicola Munaro, Walter Schweikert & Giuseppina Turano (eds), 265–285. Venice: Libreria Editrice Cafoscarina.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2006. The role of the syntax-semantics interface in language transfer. In L2 Acquisition and Creole Genesis: Dialogues [Language Acquisition and Language Disorders 42], Claire Lefebvre, Lydia White & Christine Jourdan (eds), 221–252. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007. La genèse de la périphérie gauche du saramaka: Un cas d’influence du substrat? In Grammaires Créoles et Grammaire Comparative, Karl Gadelii & Anne Zribi-Hertz (eds), 73–97. Saint-Denis: Presses Universitaires de Paris.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2009. Competition and selection: That’s all. In Complex Processes in New Languages [Creole Language Library 35], Enoch O. Aboh & Norval Smith (eds), 317–344. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. Information Structuring begins with the numeration. IBERIA 2(1): 12–42. <[URL]>Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2015a. The Emergence of Hybrid Grammars: Language Contact and Change. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2015b. Functional verbs in Gungbe: The case of inherent complement verbs. Linguisticá 10: 9–29.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2016a. Creole distinctiveness: A dead end. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 31: 400–418. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2016b. Grammaticalization: A population factor. In From Variation to Iconicity. Festschrift for Olga Fischer , Anne Bannink & Wim Honselaar (eds), 1–16. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Pegasus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(ed.). 2017. Complexity in Human Languages: A Multifaceted Approach. Language Sciences 60: 1–198. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Forthcoming. Pourquoi parlons-nous tous un créole? Le changement linguistique à travers le prisme de la créolistique. In Faits de Langue. <[URL]>Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aboh, Enoch O. & Smith, Norval. 2009. Simplicity, simplification, complexity and complexification: Where have the interfaces gone? In Complex Processes in New Languages [Creole Language Library 35], Enoch O. Aboh & Norval Smith (eds), 1–25. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aboh, Enoch O. & DeGraff, Michel. 2014. Some notes on bare noun phrases in Haitian Creole and in Gungbe: A transatlantic Sprachbund perspective. In The Sociolinguistics of Grammar [Studies in Language Companion Series 154], Tor A. Åfarli & Brit Mæhlum (eds), 203–236. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. A Null Theory of creole formation based on Universal Grammar. In Handbook of Universal Grammar, Ian Roberts (ed.). Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ansaldo, Umberto. 2009. Contact Languages: Ecology and Evolution in Asia. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Arends, Jacques. 1989. Syntactic Developments in Sranan. PhD dissertation, University of Nijmegen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Arends, Jacques, Muysken, Pieter & Smith, Norval. 1995. Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction [Creole Language Library 15]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Atindogbé, Gratien Gualbert & Grollemund, Rebeca (eds). 2017. Relative Clauses in Cameroonian Languages Structure, Function and Semantics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Mark. 1985. The Mirror Principle and morphosyntactic explanation. Linguistic Inquiry 16: 373–415.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bianchi, Valentina. 1999. Consequences of Antisymmetry: Headed Relative Clauses. Berlin: Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. The raising analysis of relative clauses: A reply to Borsley. Linguistic Inquiry 31: 123–140. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bickerton, Derek. 1981. Roots of Language. Ann Arbor MI: Karoma.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1984. The language bioprogram hypothesis. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 7: 173-221.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1988. Creole languages and the Bioprogram. Linguistics: The Cambridge Survey, Vol. II: Linguistic Theory: Extensions and Implications, Frederick Newmeyer (ed.), 268–284. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Bastard Tongues: A Trail-blazing Linguist Finds Clues to our Common Humanity in the World’s Lowliest Languages. New York NY: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bloomfield, Leonard. 1933. Language. New York NY: H. Holt.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booij, Geert. 2005. The Grammar of Words. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Borer, Hagit. 1984. Parametric Syntax: Case Studies in Semitic and Romance Languages. Dordrecht: Foris. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. Structuring Sense, Vol. I: In Name Only. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan L. 1985. Morphology: A Study of the Relation between Meaning and Form [Typological Studies in Language 9]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. Three factors in language design. Linguistic Inquiry 36: 1–22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo. 1996. 1996. The “Antisymmetric” Program: Theoretical and typological implications. Journal of Linguistics 32: 447–464. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Adverbs and Functional Heads. A Cross-linguistic Perspective. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, Robin & Roberts, Ian. 1993. A computational model of language learning and language change. Linguistic Inquiry 24: 299–345.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, Robin. 1992. The selection of syntactic knowledge. Language Acquisition 2: 83–149. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dahl, Östen. 2004. The Growth and Maintenance of Linguistic Complexity [Studies in Language Companion Series 71]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Caluwe, Johan. 2007. Mogelijke ingredienten van tussentaal. Ms, University of Ghent.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Vries, Mark. 2002. The Syntax of Relativization [LOT 53]. Utrecht: University of Utrecht.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DeGraff, Michel (ed). 1999. Language Creation and Language Change. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. On the origins of Creole: A Cartesian critique of Neo-Darwinian linguistics. Linguistic Typology 5: 213–310.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. Against creole exceptionalism. Language 79: 391–410. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2005. Morphology and word order in “creolization” and beyond. In The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Syntax, Guglielmo Cinque & Richard Kayne (eds), 293–372. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Language acquisition in creolization (and language change): Some Cartesian uniformitarian boundary conditions. Language and Linguistic Compass 3–4: 888–971. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dostie, Gaétane. 2007. La réduplication pragmatique des marqueurs discursifs. De là à là là. Langue Française 154: 45–60. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Embick, David. 2015. The Morpheme. A Theoretical Introduction. Berlin: Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Essegbey, James. 1999. Inherent Complement Verbs Revisited: Towards an Understanding of Argument Structure in Ewe [MPI Series]. Wageningen: Ponsen & Looijen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Foley, William A. & Van Valin Robert D. Jr., 1984. Functional Syntax and Universal Grammar. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ghyselen, Anne-Sophie. 2016. From diglossia to diaglossia: A West Flemish case-study. In The Future of Dialects, Marie-Hélène Côté, Remco Knooihuizen & John Nerbonne (eds), 35–63. Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibson, Kean. 1986. The ordering of auxiliary notions in Guyanese Creole. Language 62: 571–586. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goad Heather & White, Lydia. 2004. Ultimate attainment of L2 inflection. Effects of L1 prosodic structure. In Eurosla Yearbook 4, Susan Foster-Cohen, Mike Sharwood Smith, Antonella Sorace & Mitsuhiko Ota (eds), 119–145. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane. 2009. Linguistic variation in Belgium: Dialects and tussentaal. A case study: West Flemish negation. Paper presented at Meertens Institute. <[URL]>
Hall, Robert A. 1962. The life cycle of pidgin languages. Lingua 11: 151–156. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haznedar, Belma & Schwartz, Bonnie D. 1997 Are there optional infinitives in child L2 acquisition? In BUCLD 21: Proceeding of the Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Elizabeth Hughes, Mary Hughes & Annabel Greenhill (eds), 257–268. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Kuteva, Tania. 2005. Language Contact and Grammatical Change. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hengeveld, Kees. 1989. Layers and operators in Functional Grammar. Journal of Linguistics 25: 127–157. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Linguistic typology. In Linguistic Universals, Ricardo Mairal & Juana Gil (eds), 46–66. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. The grammaticalization of tense and aspect. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammaticalization, Bernd Heine & Heiko Narrog (eds). Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hulk, Aafke. 2000. Non-selective access and activation in child bilingualism. In Cross-linguistic Structures in Simultaneous Bilingualism [Studies in Bilingualism, 21] Susanne Döpke (ed.), 57–78. Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hulk, Aafke & Müller, Natascha. 2000. Bilingual first language acquisition at the interface between syntax and pragmatics. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 3: 227–244. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huttar, George, Aboh, Enoch O. & Ameka, Felix. 2013. Relative clauses in Suriname creoles and Gbe languages. Lingua 129: 96–123. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kayne, Richard. 1994. The Antisymmetry of Syntax. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kraybill, Donald B., Johnson-Weiner, Karen & Nolt, Steven M. 2013. The Amish. Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroch, Anthony & Taylor, Ann. 1997 Verb movement in Old and Middle English: Dialect variation and language contact. In Parameters of Morphosyntactic Change, Ans van Kemenade & Nigel Vincent (eds), 297–325. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kroch, Anthony. 1989. Reflexes of grammar in patterns of language change. Language Variation and Change 1: 199–244. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. Syntactic change. In The Handbook of Contemporary Syntactic Theory, Mark Baltin & Chris Collins (eds), 699–729. Malden MA: Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kusters C. W. 2003. Linguistic Complexity: The Influence of Social Change on Verbal Inflection. PhD dissertation, University of Leiden. (LOT publications).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lardiere, Donna. 2000. Mapping features to forms in second language acquisition. In Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theory, John Archibald (ed.). Malden MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lightfoot, David. 1979. Principles of Diachronic Syntax. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. The Development of Language. Acquisition, Change and Evolution. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lupyan, Gary & Dale, Rick. 2010. Language structure is partly determined by social structure. PLoS ONE 5(1): e8559. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mchombo, Sam. 2001. Effects of head-marking on constituent order in Chichewa. In Proceedings of the LFG 01 Conference, Miriam Butt & Tracy Holloway King (eds), 221–237. Stanford CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meisel, Jürgen M. 2011. Bilingual language acquisition and theories of diachronic change: Bilingualism as cause and effect of grammatical change. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 14: 121-145.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko S. 2001. The Ecology of Language Evolution. Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2005. Language evolution: The population genetics way. In Genes, Language and their Evolution, Guenther Hauska (ed). Regensburg: Universitätsverlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2008. Language Evolution. Contact, Competition and Change. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. SLA and the emergence of creoles. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 32: 359–400. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Muysken, Pieter. 1981. Creole tense/mood/aspect systems: The unmarked case? In Generative Studies on Creole Languages, Pieter Muysken (ed.), 181–199. Dordrecht: Foris. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1988. Are creoles a special type of language? In Linguistics: The Cambridge Survey, Vol. II: Linguistic Theory: Extensions and Implications, Frederick Newmeyer (ed.), 285–301. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. Bilingual Speech: A Typology of Code-mixing. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Language contact outcomes as the result of bilingual optimization strategies. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 16(4): 709–730. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nettle, Daniel. 1999. Is the rate of linguistic change constant? Lingua 108:119–136. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Niyogi, Partha & Berwick, Robert C. 1995. The Logical Problem of Language Change. A.I. Memo No. 1516, C.B.C.L. Paper No. 115: 1–18. MIT, MA: Cambridge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pelleprat, P.1655([1965]). Relation des missions des pères de la Compagnie de Jésus dans les iles et dans la terre ferme de l’Amérique méridionale. Paris: Cramoisy. Span. ed. Relato de las misiones de los padres de la compañía de Jesús en las islas y en tierra firme de América meridional. Caracas: Fuentes para la Historia Colonial de Venezuela.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prévost, Philippe & White, Lydia. 2000. Missing surface inflection or impairment in second language acquisition? Evidence from tense and agreement. Second Language Research 16/2:103–133. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Price, Richard. 2008. Travels with Tooy. History, Memory, and the African American Imagination. Chicago IL: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi. 1997. The fine structure of the Left Periphery. In Elements of Grammar, Liliane Haegeman (ed.), 281–337. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roeper, Thomas. 1999. Universal bilingualism. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 2(3): 169–186. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rountree, S. Catherine. 1992. Saramaccan Grammar Sketch [Languages of the Guianas 8]. Paramaribo: Summer Institute of Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schuchardt, Hugo. 1914. Die Sprache der Saramakkaneger in Surinam. Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam. Afdeeling Letterkunde, n.s. 14(6). Amsterdam: Johannes Müller.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sebregts, Koen D. C. J. 2015. The Sociophonetics and Phonology of Dutch r. Utrecht: LOT Dissertation Series.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Seifart, Frank. 2015. Direct and indirect affix borrowing. Language 91(3): 511–532. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Siegel, Jeff. 2008. The Emergence of Pidgins and Creoles. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith, Norval. 1987. The Genesis of the Creole Languages of Surinam. PhD dissertation, University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorace, Antonella. 2005. Selective optionality in language development. In Syntax and Variation. Reconciling the Biological and the Social [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 265], Leonie Cornips & Karen P. Corrigan (eds), 55–80. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spears, Arthur K. & Winford, Donald (ed.). 1997. The Structure and Status of Pidgins and Creoles [Creole Language Library 19]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. 2011. Sociolinguistic Typology: Social Determinants of Linguistic Complexity. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsimpli, Ianthi M. & Sorace, Antonella. 2006. Differentiating interfaces: L2 performance in syntax semantics and syntax-discourse phenomena. In BUCLD 30: Proceedings of the 30th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Vol. 2, David Bamman, Tatiana Magnitskaia & Colleen Zaller (eds), 653–664. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van der Vate, M. 2011. Tense, Aspect and Modality in a Radical Creole: The Case of Saamáka. PhD dissertation, University of Tromsoe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Veenstra, Tonjes. 1996. Serial verbs in Saramaccan: Predication and Creole genesis [HIL Dissertations 17]. The Hague: HAG.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Vries, Mark. 2002. The Syntax of Relativization. Utrecht: LOT Dissertation Series.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Walkden, George. 2017. Language contact and V3 in Germanic varieties new and old. Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 20: 49–81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weerman, Fred. 2003. Nominative-dative inversion and the decline of Dutch. Germania et alia: A Linguistic Webschrift for Hans den Besten. <[URL]>Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. Diachronic change: Early versus late acquisition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 14: 149–151. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vellupilai, Viveka. 2015. Pidgins, Creoles and Mixed Languages: An Introduction [Creole Language Library 48]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wallenberg, Joel. 2016. Extraposition is disappearing. Language 92: 237–256. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wexler, Kenneth. 1998. Very early parameter setting and the unique checking constraint: A new explanation of the optimal infinitive stage. Lingua 106: 23–79. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wichmann, Sören & Holman, Eric W. 2009. Population size and rates of language change. Special issue on Demography and Cultural Macroevolution 81. <[URL] >Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Muhsina Alleesaib & Julie Lefort
2025. New Perspectives on Mauritian Creole and Reunion Creole [Contact Language Library, 61], DOI logo
Lohndal, Terje & Michael T. Putnam
2024. The importance of features and exponents. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 14:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Aboh, Enoch O. & Cécile B. Vigouroux
2021. Introduction. In Variation Rolls the Dice [Contact Language Library, 59], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Aboh, Enoch O.
2020. Lessons From Neuro-(a)-Typical Brains: Universal Multilingualism, Code-Mixing, Recombination, and Executive Functions. Frontiers in Psychology 11 DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. Pre-Historical Language Contact in Peruvian Amazonia [Contact Language Library, 58], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue