Deixis in Caribbean English-Lexicon creole: A description of A, Da, and De

Abstract

This paper focuses on the range of apparently different syntactic functions performed by the forms a, da and de. What is discovered is that nearly all these functions have some semantic relationship with deixis. Even more significantly, one of the functions which all three markers have is that of operating as demonstratives. Moving from a position that, demonstratives lie at the core of deixis, the paper proposes that: (i) the demonstrative functions of a, da, and de lie at the core of their various functions, and that (ii) they become extended to other deictic functions by a systematic process of generalisation. The analysis in this paper explores the path by which a basic set of demonstrative forms meaning ‘not here’ become used in a range of other functions, e.g. as aspect markers, locational, equational and existential verbs, and as prepositions and topicalisers.