DOCSLIB.ORG

Language Acquisition in Creolization And, Thus, Language Change: Some Cartesian- Uniformitarian Boundary Conditions Michel Degraff* MIT Linguistics & Philosophy

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Language Acquisition in Creolization And, Thus, Language Change: Some Cartesian- Uniformitarian Boundary Conditions Michel Degraff* MIT Linguistics & Philosophy Language and Linguistics Compass 3/4 (2009): 888–971, 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2009.00135.x CreolizationMichelBlackwellOxford,LNCOLanguage1749-818x©Journal13510.1111/j.1749-818x.2009.00135.xMarch0888???971???Original 2009 2009DeGraff UKThecompilationArticle Publishing and isAuthor Language Linguistic © Ltd 2009 Change Compass Blackwell Publishing Ltd Language Acquisition in Creolization and, Thus, Language Change: Some Cartesian- Uniformitarian Boundary Conditions Michel DeGraff* MIT Linguistics & Philosophy Content Abstract 1 Background and Objectives 1.1 Terminological and conceptual preliminaries: ‘Creoles’, ‘Creole genesis’, ‘Creolization’, etc. 1.2 Uniformitarian boundary conditions 1.3 Cartesian boundary conditions 1.4 Some landmarks for navigating through the many detours of this long essay 2 Whence ‘Creole Genesis’? 2.1 Making constructive use of the distinction and relation between ‘I-languages’ and ‘E-languages’ 2.1.1 The ontological priority of I-languages (and innovations therein) 2.1.2 ‘E-creoles’ vs. ‘I-creoles’ 2.1.3 Findings about E-creoles and I-creoles complement each other 2.1.4 I-languages as ‘linguistic fingerprints’: no two idiolects are identical 2.1.5 Abrupt ‘innovations’ precede gradual ‘spread’ 2.2 Deconstructing ‘gradualism’ 2.2.1 Gradual ‘change’ in E-language reduces to abrupt steps in I-languages 2.2.2 Gradualism in acquisition, in creolization and in age-grading effects 2.2.3 The roles of children and adults vis-à-vis innovations and the spread thereof 2.3 On the formation of ‘I-creoles’ via parameter-(re)setting in I-languages – as in other cases of language change 2.3.1 ‘Poverty of the stimulus’ arguments and ‘the logical problem of language acquisition’ 2.3.2 ‘Poverty of the stimulus’ in the colonial Caribbean: a ‘sharp break in transmission’? 2.3.3 English ‘out-creoles’ Haitian Creole 2.3.4 Caribbean Creoles are genetically related to European languages according to the Comparative Method 2.3.5 Nonlinguistic confounds in the application of the Comparative Method to Creole languages © 2009 The Author Journal Compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Creolization is Language Change 889 2.3.6 ‘Break in transmission’: a (non)criterion in Creole formation – redux 2.3.7 Was the formation of Caribbean Creoles radically more rapid than the formation of Romance languages? 3 On Time Machines and Other Expediments for Creolists 3.1 Do creolists really need time machines? 3.2 Uniformitarian expediments 3.2.1 Sign-language emergence vs. Caribbean Creole formation 3.2.2 What can Sign-language emergence teach us about Creole formation? 4 Integrating Both Second- and First-language Acquisition in Creole-formation Scenarios 4.1 Creole formation as creation of ‘systèmes où tout se tient’ 4.2 Creole (i.e., Caribbean-born) children ‘created’ the first Caribbean ‘Creole’ I-languages 4.2.1 The first ‘Creole languages’ were the I-languages of the first ‘Cre- ole’ children 4.2.2 Creole children’s role in the homogenization of colonial (Proto-)Creole dialects 4.2.3 Creole children’s innovations 4.3 Both adults and children ‘created’ Caribbean Creoles, each in their own way: an L2A–L1A cascade 4.4 Creoles as ‘conventionalized interlanguages of an early stage’? 4.4.1 ‘Interphrasal information exchange’ in contemporary Creoles 4.4.2 ‘Interphrasal information exchange’ in the early stages of Haitian Creole and in other Creole languages 4.4.3 The argumentation for the ‘Creoles as early interlanguages’ hypothesis is empirically and theoretically inconsistent 4.4.4 ‘Local simplicity’ in Creole and non-Creole formation 5 Envoi Acknowledgements/Notes References Abstract This essay prescribes some broad ‘Cartesian-Uniformitarian’ boundary conditions for linguistic hypotheses about Creole formation. These conditions make constructive connections between Creole studies, historical linguistics and language-acquisition research. Here ‘Cartesian’ has a mentalist sense, as in Chom- sky (1966): I consider the formation of so-called ‘Creole’ languages to be ulti- mately reducible to the creation, in certain sociohistorical contexts, of certain idiolects (i.e., individual internal, or ‘I-’, languages) in the minds of the ‘first “Creole” speakers’. To avoid circularity, my use of the term ‘Creole’ in the phrase ‘first “Creole” speakers’ combines some of its original ethno-historical senses: I use the word ‘Creole’, in this particular context, to refer to the non-indigenous people of African or European descent that were born and raised in the colonial New World, in opposition to those that were born and raised in the Old Worlds of Africa and Europe. The term ‘Uniformitarian’ evokes Neogrammarian © 2009 The Author Language and Linguistics Compass 3/4 (2009): 888–971, 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2009.00135.x Journal Compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 890 Michel DeGraff approaches to language change, as advocated, for example, by Osthoff and Brugmann (1878) and Paul (1890). It summarizes my fundamental working assumption that no sui generis or exceptional linguistic processes need to be postulated in order to explain the creation of these languages that have come to be labeled ‘Creole’: these languages were created by the same psycholinguistic mechanisms that are responsible for the creation of (I-)languages, and for linguistic diachronic patterns, everywhere else. Therefore, ‘Creole’ languages cannot be distinguished a priori from non-‘Creole’ languages on any linguistic-theoretical criteria – and ‘Creole’ languages can be genetically classified by the Comparative Method, on a par with non-‘Creole’ languages. Such assumptions go against popular claims about Creole genesis such as those in, for example, Thomason and Kaufman (1988), Lefebvre (1998) and Bickerton (1999). In establishing these Cartesian-Uniformitarian guidelines, I correct category mistakes that fail to distinguish explanations that apply to I-languages from explanations that apply to E(xternal)-languages and other social-group phenomena that I-languages are implicated in. One such category mistake concerns the ontology and time course of innovations in specific I-languages vs. their spread across populations of I-languages and into E-language communal norms. Then I investigate the possible – and impossible – contributions of first-language acquisition and second-language acquisition to ‘creolization’. In particular, I take my cues from: (i) studies of language- and dialect-contact situations where children and adults seem to play observably distinct roles; and (ii) recent discoveries about instances of Sign Language acquisition and creation where the Primary Linguistic Data seem remarkably restricted. As for elucidating the limits on the restructuring capacities of children and adults, and their respective contributions to language creation and change, it is episte- mologically safer to investigate instances of diachronic development that are more recent than the now unobservable early stages of ‘creolization’. Throughout this essay, I use the term ‘creolization’ strictly as an a-theoretical abbreviation for the longer phrase ‘development of these languages that, for sociohistorical reasons, have been labeled “Creole” ’. In the perspective sketched here, creoliza- tion is just another instance of language change – or ‘language evolution’, in Mufwene’s (2001, 2008) sense – the investigation of which is to shed light on Universal Grammar. 1. Background and Objectives 1.1. TERMINOLOGICAL AND CONCEPTUAL PRELIMINARIES: ‘CREOLES’, ‘CREOLE GENESIS’, ‘CREOLIZATION’, ETC. What sorts of ‘Creole genesis’ hypotheses can, or cannot, be derived within a linguistic-theoretical framework that, contrary to widespread assumptions in Creole studies (see DeGraff 2005a,b,c), does not a priori posit any exceptional developmental patterns or psycholinguistic processes on the part of whoever ‘created’ these languages we call ‘Creoles’? This is the main question that will concern me in this essay. Although I will be able to sketch only a few epistemological and theoretical preliminaries © 2009 The Author Language and Linguistics Compass 3/4 (2009): 888–971, 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2009.00135.x Journal Compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Creolization is Language Change 891 toward a satisfactory answer, these preliminaries should at the very least help clarify the meanings of oft-used terms such as ‘Creole languages’, ‘Creole genesis’, ‘creolization’, etc., and their epistemological status vis-à- vis linguistic theory and theories of language change.1 Such clarification is also meant to establish some basic boundary conditions for linguistic hypotheses about Creole formation, and, in so doing, contribute to con- structive conversations between creolists, historical linguists and language- acquisition researchers – conversations that integrate Creole studies into mainstream linguistic-theoretical research. As envisaged in this essay, these conversations will evolve within a perforce broad, yet productive, set of methodological guidelines. I write ‘perforce broad’ because the actual structural outcome of each specific language-contact and language-change scenario depends on the complex particulars of contingent combinations of ecological factors – in the same way that no two developmental sequences, be it ontogenetic or phylogenetic, can be identical. All we can provide are broad boundary conditions that limit the space of our (thus far, much too unconstrained) hypotheses. Pending the main discussion below, there is one starting assumption that gives this essay its ‘Uniformitarian’ orientation.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • TRANSITIVITY in FLATHEAD Sarah Thomason & Daniel Everett
    317 318 TRANSITIVITY IN FLATHEAD ANTIPASSIVE suffix -( elm (usually called "middle" in the Salishalliiterature); transitives with the BACKGROUNDED AGENT suffix -( elm (often called "passive/indefinite agent" Sarah Thomason & Daniel Everett in the literature); DERIVED TRANSITIVES in m; TRANSITIVE CONTINUATIVES in -( e)m; University of Pittsburgh transitives detransitivized by lexical suffixes; and transitives detransitivized by the reflexive suffix -cut. These nine constructions do not, of course, exhaust the list of relevant patterns; our work is at a preliminary stage, and we have not yet explored ABSTRACT all the constructions that have some connection with transitivity. We omit a few Flathead, a Salishan language spoken in northwestern Montana, has a ver­ detransitivizing constructions, notably the reciprocal, because they behave basically bal system that seems at first glance to distinguish transitive constructions like reflexive forms with respect to transitivity. We do not consider unaccusatives. from intransitive ones in a quite straightforward way: transitive verbs have a We also omit discussion of the so-called "intransitive reflexives". A more significant transitive suffix and a characteristic set of subject and object markers, while omission is the lack of any specific consideration of interactions between control and intransitive verbs lack the transitive suffix and have a completely different set transitivity (see e.g. Thompson 1985); we have as yet too little information on control of subject markers. In addition, the two constructions differ systematically in features in Flathead to comment on them here. Another major transitivity-related topic their marking of adjunct (or argument) noun phrases. Initial appearances are that is largely omitted from our account is the patterning of the various constructions deceiving, however.
    [Show full text]
  • Language Creativity: a Sociolinguistic Reading of Linguistic Change in Lebanon
    BAU Journal - Society, Culture and Human Behavior Volume 1 Issue 1 ISSN: 2663-9122 Article 2 August 2019 LANGUAGE CREATIVITY: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC READING OF LINGUISTIC CHANGE IN LEBANON Sawsan Tohme English Department, Faculty of Human Sciences, Beirut Arab University, Lebanon, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bau.edu.lb/schbjournal Part of the Architecture Commons, Arts and Humanities Commons, Education Commons, and the Law Commons Recommended Citation Tohme, Sawsan (2019) "LANGUAGE CREATIVITY: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC READING OF LINGUISTIC CHANGE IN LEBANON," BAU Journal - Society, Culture and Human Behavior: Vol. 1 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. Available at: https://digitalcommons.bau.edu.lb/schbjournal/vol1/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ BAU. It has been accepted for inclusion in BAU Journal - Society, Culture and Human Behavior by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ BAU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LANGUAGE CREATIVITY: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC READING OF LINGUISTIC CHANGE IN LEBANON Abstract Language creativity in incorporated in everyday conversations and language behaviour. It is present in everyday expression although it might sometimes be invisible, looked down on or disdained. Regardless of whether we are in favour of or against this creativity, it is worth being recognised. As far as Lebanon is concerned, Arabic (i.e. Standard Arabic) is the official language, while Lebanese abic,Ar along with English and French, are the main languages used by the Lebanese. This language diversity can be explained in the light of a number of factors and sociolinguistic functions.
    [Show full text]
  • From African to African American: the Creolization of African Culture
    From African to African American: The Creolization of African Culture Melvin A. Obey Community Services So long So far away Is Africa Not even memories alive Save those that songs Beat back into the blood... Beat out of blood with words sad-sung In strange un-Negro tongue So long So far away Is Africa -Langston Hughes, Free in a White Society INTRODUCTION When I started working in HISD’s Community Services my first assignment was working with inner city students that came to us straight from TYC (Texas Youth Commission). Many of these young secondary students had committed serious crimes, but at that time they were not treated as adults in the courts. Teaching these young students was a rewarding and enriching experience. You really had to be up close and personal with these students when dealing with emotional problems that would arise each day. Problems of anguish, sadness, low self-esteem, disappointment, loneliness, and of not being wanted or loved, were always present. The teacher had to administer to all of these needs, and in so doing got to know and understand the students. Each personality had to be addressed individually. Many of these students came from one parent homes, where the parent had to work and the student went unsupervised most of the time. In many instances, students were the victims of circumstances beyond their control, the problems of their homes and communities spilled over into academics. The teachers have to do all they can to advise and console, without getting involved to the extent that they lose their effectiveness.
    [Show full text]
  • Determining Language Contact Effects in Ancient Contact Situations Sarah
    Determining language contact effects in ancient contact situations Sarah Thomason University of Michigan Proving the existence of ancient language contacts is easy; proving the existence of ancient contact-induced language change is much more difficult, by compari- son to analyses of modern contact situations. This paper surveys some ancient contacts and their effects on the languages. The main conclusion is that the historical methods used for analyzing better-documented contact situations can be applied to ancient contact situations as well. But the chances for success are likely to be more limited, because gaps in the available information may make it impossible to satisfy the prerequisites for proposing contact-induced changes. 1. Introduction. Language contact is almost as old as humankind. It has surely been a constant feature of human culture for as long as humans have spoken more than one language|which, if we assume a monogenetic origin for humans and therefore for human language, would presumably have been somewhere from several hundred to several thousand years after the beginning, depending on when the earliest speech community broke up into two or more subcommunities or separate communities. Evidence of language contact, however, is much more recent. To a certain extent we can infer the existence of language contacts from known population movements and cultural practices. So, for instance, the amount of linguistic diversity in New Guinea, with its thou- sand or so languages, must have taken many millennia to develop (even before Austronesian speakers arrived a few thousand years ago to settle around the island's coast), and there is no reason to suppose that the intensive language contact that characterizes the island is a modern phenomenon.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophy Newsletter Fall 2012.Indd
    Michigan Philosophy News Fall 2012 for friends, alumni, alumnae of the Department of Philosophy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor INSIDE THIS ISSUE • Graduate and Undergraduate Program News • Field Reports: PENGUIN, Science Fiction and Philoso- phy, Philosophy Movie Night, The Reference Book, and The Science of Ethics Project • Recent Graduates • Contributions Dear Friends of Michigan Philosophy, Loyal readers of the Michigan Philosophy News will recognize a new format this year. Instead of a single extended centerpiece in the form of a faculty article developing a research theme, we feature a number of shorter “fi eld reports,” meant to convey the range of departmental goings-on this year. This range includes (but is not limited to!) undergraduate course development, the co-curricular innovation of Philosophy Movie Night at the Michigan Theater, “The Science of Ethics” project, and PENGUIN, a graduate student initiative to teach philosophy in the Detroit public schools. Also in this year’s MPN, the Directors of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies report directly on their spheres. The only task this leaves the Department Chair is to deliver an overview of events and developments since the last MPN, and to express thanks to all of those who help to make philosophy at Michigan what it is. This I proceed to do. Faculty and Staff News Although we have no new full-time faculty to introduce, we have two “dry” appointments to announce, two visiting professors to welcome, and two faculty returning in newly elevated positions to celebrate. “Dry” appointments are faculty working full-time in other units, but ready and able to contribute to Departmental life, for instance by teaching cross-listed courses, advising graduate students, or initiating collaborative exchanges.
    [Show full text]
  • Bilingualism and Contact-Induced Language Change Sarah Thomason
    Bilingualism and contact-induced language change Sarah Thomason University of Michigan March 2005 This paper explores the relationship between bilingualism and contact-induced language change, focusing on the question of which contributions might be expected from children and which from adults. The issue is reflected in debates among historical linguists as to whether internally-motivated language change is initiated by children during first-language acquisition or by adults|or by both. In language contact studies, it is possible to identify changes, usually temporary ones, that are initiated by children, and it is also possible to identify changes that are initiated by adults. The conclusion, therefore, is that both adults and children are responsible for contact-induced changes, although perhaps not for the same kinds of changes: shift-induced interference, which is due to imperfect learning of a target language by members of a speech community, is likely to be exclusively an adult phenomenon, or at least not primarily initiated by young children during first-language acquisition. I will not address in detail the question of the role of adults vs. the role of children in the initiation and spread of linguistic changes more generally, but some implications of the results from contact-induced change will be discussed in the concluding section. After laying some preliminary groundwork ( 1), I will outline briefly the debate about x agents of change in historical linguistics and then consider innovations introduced by children and adults in contact situations in which both child learners and adults have full effective access to the source language(s) ( 2).
    [Show full text]
  • Sarah Thomason's Brief CV
    Sarah Thomason's Brief CV August 2016 After receiving my Ph.D. from Yale University in 1968, I taught Slavic linguistics at Yale (1968-1971) and then general linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh (1972-1998). Since 1999 I've been at the University of Michigan, where I am now the Bernard Bloch Distinguished University Professor of Linguistics; I was Chair of the Linguistics Department 2010-2013. I have worked with elders at the Salish & Pend d'Oreille Culture Committee in St. Ignatius, Montana, since 1981, compiling a dictionary and other materials for the tribes' Salish-Pend d'Oreille language program. My current research focuses on contact- induced language change, endangered languages, and Salishan linguistics, but I also have a continuing interest in debunking linguistic pseudoscience. A few of my publications are Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics (with Terrence Kaufman, University of California Press, 1988, 1991), Language contact: an introduction (Edinburgh University Press & Georgetown University Press, 2001), Endangered languages: an introduction (Cam- bridge University Press, 2015), `Chinook Jargon in areal and historical context' (Language, 1983), `Genetic relationship and the case of Ma'a (Mbugu)' (Studies in African Linguis- tics, 1983), `Before the Lingua Franca: Pidgin Arabic in the eleventh century A.D.' (with Alaa Elgibali, Lingua, 1986), `Truncation in Montana Salish' (with Lucy Thomason, 2004), `Language contact and deliberate change' (Journal of Language Contact, 2007), `The Pacific Northwest linguistic area: historical perspectives' (2015), `Do you remember your previous life's language in your present incarnation?' (American Speech, 1984), and `At a loss for words' (Natural History magazine, December 2007/January 2008).
    [Show full text]
  • Making Sense of "Bad English"
    MAKING SENSE OF “BAD ENGLISH” Why is it that some ways of using English are considered “good” and others are considered “bad”? Why are certain forms of language termed elegant, eloquent, or refined, whereas others are deemed uneducated, coarse, or inappropriate? Making Sense of “Bad English” is an accessible introduction to attitudes and ideologies towards the use of English in different settings around the world. Outlining how perceptions about what constitutes “good” and “bad” English have been shaped, this book shows how these principles are based on social factors rather than linguistic issues and highlights some of the real-life consequences of these perceptions. Features include: • an overview of attitudes towards English and how they came about, as well as real-life consequences and benefits of using “bad” English; • explicit links between different English language systems, including child’s English, English as a lingua franca, African American English, Singlish, and New Delhi English; • examples taken from classic names in the field of sociolinguistics, including Labov, Trudgill, Baugh, and Lambert, as well as rising stars and more recent cutting-edge research; • links to relevant social parallels, including cultural outputs such as holiday myths, to help readers engage in a new way with the notion of Standard English; • supporting online material for students which features worksheets, links to audio and news files, further examples and discussion questions, and background on key issues from the book. Making Sense of “Bad English” provides an engaging and thought-provoking overview of this topic and is essential reading for any student studying sociolinguistics within a global setting.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Speaking Singlish' Comic Strips
    International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change. www.ijicc.net Volume 12, Issue 12, 2020 The Use of Colloquial Singaporean English in ‘Speaking Singlish’ Comic Strips: A Syntactic Analysis Delianaa*, Felicia Oscarb, a,bEnglish department, Faculty of Cultural Studies, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Email: a*[email protected] This study explores the sentence structure of Colloquial Singaporean English (CSE) and how it differs from Standard English (SE). A descriptive qualitative method is employed as the research design. The data source is the dialogue of five comic strips which are purposively chosen from Speaking Singlish comic strips. Data is in the form of sentences totalling 34 declaratives, 20 wh- interrogatives, 14 yes -no interrogatives, 3 imperatives and 1 exclamative. The results present the sentence structure of CSE found in the data generally constructed by one subject, one predicate, and occasionally one discourse element. The subject is a noun phrase while the predicate varies amongst noun, adjective, adverb, and verb phrases– particularly in copula deletion. On the other hand, there are several differences between the sentence structure of CSE and SE in the data including the use of copula, topic sentence, discourse elements, adverbs, unmarked plural noun and past tense. Key words: Colloquial Singaporean English (CSE), Speaking Singlish, sentence structure. Introduction Standard English (SE) is a variety of the English language. This view is perhaps more acceptable in the case of Non-Standard English (NSE). The classification of SE being a dialect goes against the lay understanding that a dialect is a subset of a language, usually with a geographical restriction regarding its distribution (Kerswill, 2006).
    [Show full text]
  • ESSAY a Critique of Arguments Offered Against Reincarnation
    Journal of Scienti$c Exploration, Vol. 1 1, No. 4, pp. 499-526, 1997 0892-33 10197 01997 Society for Scientific Exploration ESSAY A Critique of Arguments Offered Against Reincarnation Department of Philosophy, University Plazu, Georgia State University Atlanta, Georgia 30303-3083 Abstract - In his recently published book Reincarnation: A Critical Exami- nation (Amherst, New York: Promethius Books, 1996). Paul Edwards has of- fered a number of arguments against the possibility of reincarnation. It is a sweeping effort to show that the very idea of reincarnation is illogical and in- defensible. While not arguing directly for reincarnation, this essay criticizes the main arguments, methodology and polemics wielded in what is more an effort to debunk than to carry out the critical examination claimed in the title of the book. In criticizing Edward's arguments this essay is criticizing the major objections available against the reincarnation hypothesis. Keywords: reincarnation -philosophy Introduction In his recent book Reincarnation: A Critical Examination (Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 1996), Paul Edwards examines critically both the belief in reincarnation and the belief in the Law of Karma. For the author, both beliefs are mutually entailing and demonstrably indefensible. The author is strongly inclined to think that the belief in reincarnation is conceptually inco- herent (rather than simply false) because of the "nonsensicality" of such no- tions as the "astral body" and the "womb-invasion" of the prospective mother by the soul or astral body. (p. 28) However popular such beliefs may be, the author seeks to show that they are not only foolish myths, unworthy of any ra- tional human being, but also part of the tide of irrationalism sweeping the Western World.
    [Show full text]
  • Localization and the Chinese Overseas: Acculturation, Assimilation, Hybridization, Creolization, and Identification
    Cultural and Religious Studies, February 2018, Vol. 6, No. 2, 73-87 doi: 10.17265/2328-2177/2018.02.001 D DAVID PUBLISHING Localization and the Chinese Overseas: Acculturation, Assimilation, Hybridization, Creolization, and Identification TAN Chee-Beng Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China Based on materials on the localized Chinese overseas, including the Melaka Babas, who are mostly Malay-speaking Chinese, this article reflects on the use of such terms as acculturation and assimilation, as well as hybridization and creolization, in relation to highly localized Chinese. All these concepts are seen as different ways of describing cultural formation in transcultural context. In particular, the relevance of using creolization to refer to the kind of creative process of cultural formation beyond its original usage in the Caribbean is discussed. This results in the identification of fragmented creolization as in the case of the Caribbean and a rooted creolization as in the case of the Babas. The author shall first discuss the issues of assimilation and integration, followed by hybridization and creolization. This is followed by the discussion on localization of Chinese overseas and identity. The concluding section provides some remarks on the concepts reviewed, and three main categories of acculturated Chinese are identified, namely, Chinese who are linguistically assimilated but still observe major Chinese traditions, Chinese who are so acculturated to the mainstream society that they hardly practice Chinese traditions, and Chinese who are both highly localized and highly mixed “racially”. Keywords: acculturation and assimilation, hybridization, creolization, localization and identity, Baba, Chinese overseas Introduction1 A noticeable feature of Chinese overseas is their local cultural adaptation.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Introduction
    Introduction 1 1 Introduction SILVIA KOUWENBERG AND JOHN VICTOR SINGLER 1 Background That there is a reason – and a need – for The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies in linguistics today comes from the recognition of the challenges that pidgin and creole languages pose for linguistics as a field. At the same time, an assessment of the state of pidgin and creole studies is timely for those who work within it. The questions that drive pidgin and creole studies today revolve around the nature and interaction of the forces that have shaped these languages. These questions are not new; they are what motivated the study of these languages in the first place. However, in recent years insights from other branches of lin- guistics as well as careful sociohistorical studies have moved the field forward. Creole studies has attained this point within linguistics, it can be argued, as a logical progression from three events that occurred half a century ago: • the publication in 1957 of Chomsky’s Syntactic Structures, • the publication four years earlier of Weinreich’s Languages in Contact, and • the convening in 1959 of the first international conference on creole studies at Mona, Jamaica. 1.1 The Chomskyan paradigm The publication of Syntactic Structures – a defining moment in the history of modern linguistics – has, additionally, special relevance for creole studies. The Chomskyan paradigm emphasized the interaction of language and the mind. The structure of the brain for language provides the basis for universals – the properties that characterize and, indeed, define all human language. Further, linguists working within the Chomskyan paradigm sought to understand the nature of the acquisition of language, the way in which the intersection of universal principles with language-particular input resulted in children’s acquisition of language.
    [Show full text]