Content Morphemes Research Articles

When two become one: Creating a composite grammar in creole formation

This paper examines the structural consequences of the contact between Dutch overseers and Eastern Ij slaves during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries on the formation of Berbice Dutch, an unusual creole because of its remarkably homogeneous substrate. Based on the assumption that the structure-building operations in language contact situations are governed by the relative accessibility of morphemes in production, various surface configurations in Berbice Dutch are explained in terms of the 4-M model. Although the 4-M model classifies morphemes as falling into four types, content morphemes and three types of system morphemes, its focus is on how morphemes are differentially elected in production. A second model, the Abstract Level model, views the structure of the abstract lemmas that support morphemes as internally complex. Considering how morphemes are elected and how abstract lexical structure is complex opens the door to an explanation for the surface configurations found in Berbice Dutch. Data from Berbice Dutch demonstrate that abstract lexical structure can be “split” and “recombined” in such a way that surface structure is projected by an underlying grammatical frame that is a composite of the abstract lexical structure of the linguistic varieties in contact. Perceptual saliency of morphological structure and the degree of homogeneity in the substrate play a crucial role in predicting what is and what is not possible in creole formation.

Constructing interlanguage: building a composite matrix language

Treating interlanguage as language contact results in an explanatory account of second-language acquisition (SLA). The proposed model is informed by three sets of assumptions. First, lexical structure is composed of levels or substructures; the relevant levels are lexical-conceptual structure, predicate-argument structure, and morphological-realization patterns (Talmy 1985; Jackendoff 1990; Myers-Scotton and Jake 1995). Second, the distinction between content and system (i.e. functional) morphemes, developed in the matrix language frame model of intrasentential code switching (Myers-Scotton 1993), determines how lexical items can contribute to building the interlanguage grammatical system. Two types of system morphemes are recognized: conceptually activated system morphemes and structurally assigned system morphemes (Bock and Levelt 1994 ; Jake and Myers-Scotton 1996). Finally, the matrix-language and embedded-language distinction structures interlanguage. In SLA an INTENDED matrix language, the target language, and a DE FACTO matrix language, the developing linguistic competence, are recognized. The L1 acts as an embedded language. Interlanguage structures are projected by lexical substructures of the three linguistic systems in contact. Principles structuring language contact and the nature of the grammatical elements projecting lexical structure determine what types of grammatical structures each system can contribute and how they are combined into a developing composite matrix language

Prominence of leading functors in function morpheme sequences as evidenced by letter detection.

Our previous work indicated that the increased difficulty in detecting letters in function in comparison with content morphemes derives from the role of functors in supporting phrase structure. Presumably, letters disappear in the transition from structure to content. Here the effect was most powerful for leading functors in a sequence of function morphemes (e.g., «that» in «that from the»). This pattern was found for Hebrew function prefixes that can be appended as a sequence to a content word (e.g., SMHGN, meaning «that from the garden»; Experiments 1 & 2) and also for sequences of Hebrew and English function words (Experiments 3 & 4)