Abstract
Creole languages consistently show valency patterns that cannot be traced back to their lexifier languages, but derive from their substrate languages. In this paper, I start out from the observation that a convincing case for substrate influence can be made by adopting a world-wide comparative approach. If there are recurrent matches between substrate and creole structures in a given construction type, in creoles of different world regions and with different substrates, then we can exclude the possibility of an accident, and substrate influence is the only explanation. The construction types that I will look at are ditransitive constructions (Section 3), weather constructions (Section 4), experiencer constructions (Section 5), and motion constructions (Section 6). I will draw on the unique typological data source from the Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures (Michaelis et al., 2013a; 2013b). My conclusion is that the data provided in AP i CS support the claim that during creolization, valency patterns have been systematically calqued into the nascent creoles.
Highlights
I will show in this paper that creole languages consistently show valency patterns that cannot be traced back to their lexifier languages, but derive from their substrate languages
Substrate influence in creoles has been discussed by various authors (e.g. Alleyne, 1980; Boretzky, 1983; Holm, 1988; Lefebvre, 1998; Lefebvre, 2011; Lefebvre, 2015; McWhorter, 1997; Parkvall, 2000; Siegel, 1999; Siegel, 2008; Winford and Migge, 2007), but they have focused on specific constructions, on specific creole languages and/or specific substrate languages
In many West African and Bantu languages, which are substrates of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean contact languages, motion-to and motion-from in sentences relating to a situation like ‘I go to/come from the market’ are not overtly marked, but orientation is expressed through the semantics of the verb
Summary
If we consider the substrate/adstrate languages from South Asia, insular Southeast Asia and the Pacific, which are relevant for the corresponding APiCS creoles, it is the indirect-object construction which predominates in these regions (see Map 4 and examples in (7)–(8)).
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