La fonction et les formes réfléchies dans le mauricien et la haïtien

Abstract

Creole languages do not exhibit morphosyntactic features that are specific to them, but they are related by the particular sociohistorical settings of their emergence, in language-contact situations. They provide an opportunity to scrutinize structural issues left aside in the description of other languages. This paper examines the relationship between reflexive forms and reflexive function in two creole languages, addressing the issue of reflexive forms as a grammatical category per se. Adducing some relevant evidence from Korean and Japanese, it is argued that the expression of coreference does not imply the existence of a reflexive pronominal paradigm. It is likewise pointed out on the basis of data from English that coreference can also be expressed through the same morphosyntactic devices used for emphatic and contrastive reference. Data from Bantu languages are cited to illustrate the discrepancy between the existence of a reflexive function and the non-existence of reflexive forms. In the case of French-based creoles, it is argued that Mauritian has no reflexive pronouns whereas Haitian has developed a specific marker for reflexive function, possessive marker + tet + N. The status of these forms as reflexive pronouns is unclear.