Versification and reiteration in Hawai'i Creole English: ‘If nomo paila moen, awrail’.

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Hawai'i Creole English (HCE), habitually called ‘Pidgin’ by the locals in Hawai'i, is frequently regarded as a form of destructured Standard English (SE). Nevertheless, such an idea seems to derive from lay understanding about creole languages in general, and particular characteristics that HCE owns are not inferior to SE but are simply different from it. HCE as well as other creoles presents rule‐governed structures as Bickerton (1977, 1981, 1990), and Sato and Watson‐Gegeo (1992) indicate in syntax and discourse respectively. This evidence reconfirms the fact that HCE is not a debased version of SE but a newborn linguistic system, created by the first generation of creole speakers on the plantations 1890–1910. This paper explores and examines such rule‐governed characteristics of HCE by applying Hymes's Verse Analysis to its discourse processes. By focusing on two interesting aspects, i.e., versification and reiteration, it will be argued that the narrative structure in the language is poetic and metrical, and those structures might constitute part of narrative grammar in creole languages.