Edited by Umberto Ansaldo, Stephen Matthews and Lisa Lim
Deconstructing Creole is a collection of studies aimed at critically assessing the idea of creole languages as a homogeneous structural type with shared and peculiar patterns of genesis. Following up on the critical discussion of notions of ‘creole exceptionalism’ as historical and ideological… read more
This corpus-based study investigates intonation patterns in the production of Cantonese by Cantonese-English bilingual children. We examine the intonation patterns in eight simultaneous bilingual children acquiring a tonal (Cantonese) and an intonational language (English) from 2;0 to 3;0. Two… read more
The CHILDES archive has revolutionized the study of bilingual development. We review the available corpora and their properties, some methods that have been used in creating and analyzing corpus data, and the kinds of analyses that it has made possible. These points are illustrated with corpus data… read more
Whether relative clauses can be identified in Chinese is a recurrent question. We ask whether relative clauses are distinct from other noun-modifying clause constructions in Cantonese, one of many East Asian languages in which a noun can be preceded by a diverse range of modifying clauses. The… read more
The role of cross-linguistic influence in bilingual children’s development remains a matter of debate. Some researchers have proposed that simultaneous bilingual learners develop the linguistic systems of two languages in the same way as matched monolingual children do. Other researchers have… read more
In the early stages of the China trade European traders knew nothing of Chinese, while the Chinese traders were equally ignorant of European languages. It was in this setting that pidgin languages developed for interethnic communication. While the role of Chinese Pidgin English in the China trade… read more
In this paper we revisit some long-standing questions regarding the origins and structure of China Coast Pidgin (CCP), also known as Chinese Pidgin English. We first review the historical context of the China Trade which formed the ecology for the development of CCP. We then review the available… read more
While the role of Chinese Pidgin English (CPE) in the Canton trade is relatively well-understood, the role of pidgin Portuguese has remained less clear. We review the evidence for the use of pidgin Portuguese and for its influence on the development of CPE. There is evidence of gradual replacement… read more
The “Chinese” character of Chinese Pidgin English, or China Coast Pidgin (CCP) has been debated in previous work. While some Chinese-based features such as the use of piece(e) as a classifier are widely acknowledged, the extent of substrate influence has remained unclear. This paper surveys the… read more
We discuss three typological characteristics relevant to the acquisition of relative clauses (RCs) in Cantonese and Mandarin: (i) the prenominal position of RCs; (ii) the availability of an internally-headed analysis for Cantonese object RCs; and (iii) Chinese RCs as a subset of noun modifying… read more
It is widely acknowledged that developments in bilingual individuals parallel, and ultimately underlie, those taking place in the course of contact-induced change. In this paper we address the poorly understood relationship between the individual and community-level processes, focusing on the… read more
The morpheme kai is among the most frequent and polyfunctional in Chaozhou, a Min dialect of Chinese. The present paper aims to present a descriptive and analytical account of the various functions of kai from Chaozhou in order to shed more light on nominalization and the diachronic development of… read more
In this paper we revisit some long-standing questions regarding the origins and structure of China Coast Pidgin (CCP), also known as Chinese Pidgin English. We first review the historical context of the China Trade which formed the ecology for the development of CCP. We then review the available… read more
It is widely acknowledged that developments in bilingual individuals parallel, and ultimately underlie, those taking place in the course of contact-induced change. In this paper we address the poorly understood relationship between the individual and community-level processes, focusing on the… read more
This paper presents evidence of recurring patterns as well as of language-specific variations in the development of nominalizers across several East Asian and Tibeto-Burman languages. Special attention is pa to the different grammaticalization pathways of nominalizer morphemes and to the links… read more
Previous research has shown that past-tense inflection is particularly difficult for child learners of English whose L1 is Chinese, with persistent omission often attributed to cross-linguistic influence (CLI). Building on this literature, this study investigates how Chinese–English bilingual… read more
