L'absence de pronoms clitiques en créole mauricien

Abstract

Anand Syea : Pronouns and the absence of clitic pronouns in Mauritian Creole An examination of the pronominal system of Mauritian Creole, as of other French-based creoles, reveals that while most of the strong pronouns of French have been-retained, the weak (clitic) pronouns were never acquired. An obvious question arises as to why these pronouns failed to appear in the French creoles. It is suggested here that if clitic pronouns are in effect agreement markers, as has been suggested in the literature, and are base-generated as bundles of features which are spelt out on functional heads such as Agr(S) and Agr(O), their absence in Mauritian and other French creoles can be accounted for. It is proposed that in general the spelling out of subject clitics in Agr(S) rests crucially on the presence of an overt Tense marker and the reason they failed to be spelt out in Mauritian Creole is because no overt Tense marker was available in the initial period. In the case of object clitics, their failure to be realised on Agr(O) is attributed to the strict SVO order imposed on the emerging grammar.