Introduction: sources and paths of morphosyntactic expression in creoles

Abstract

In recent decades, considerable progress has been made in the study of creole morphology and significant discoveries have led to new insights into the origins, development and nature of creole word structure (Bonami & Luis 2014; Braun & Plag 2002; Braun 2009; Clements & Koontz-Garboden 2002; Clements & Luis 2014; Farqhuason 2007; Kihm 2003, 2014; Kouwenberg 2003; Luis 2008, 2011, 2014; Plag 2008, 2009; Siegel 2004a, b, 2008; among others). While these individual investigations have contributed significantly to our understanding of creole morphology, a non-trivial degree of uncertainty persists regarding the exact range of morphological phenomena (inflectional, derivational, compounding, and other) that exist in creole languages. There is yet no consensus on whether certain phenomena should be identified as morphological or not, partly because of an unclear/doubtful use of morphological diagnostics to determine the grammatical status of linguistic units. Also, little attention has been paid to the fact that creoles may develop morphological phenomena at different points in their lifecycle, i.e., both during and after creolisation. Given the far-reaching consequences that creole morphology can have on our understanding of how contact-morphologies emerge and evolve (Siegel 2008), a workshop on ‘Rethinking Creole Morphology’ took place during the 19 International Congress of Linguists, at the University of Geneva, in July 2013. One of the major goals of the event was to enhance discussion about issues and problems that have been raised in recent years from various perspectives and contribute towards an assessment of the present state of findings and developments. The idea was also to document, describe, and analyse morphological phenomena and investigate how such phenomena correlate with typological, socio-historical and acquisitional factors. The workshop was centered around the following topics and key questions: