TENSE, ASPECT AND MODALITY IN BASTIMENTOS CREOLE ENGLISH A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2019 Heidi Reid School of Arts, Languages and Cultures 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Chapter one: Introduction ............................................................................................ 18 1.1 Aims and scope of this thesis ............................................................................... 18 1.2 Framework and general approach ........................................................................ 23 1.2.1 Tense, aspect, modality .................................................................................... 25 1.2.2 Grammaticalisation: Layering & bleaching ..................................................... 27 1.3 TMA markers in BCE .......................................................................................... 29 1.3.1 Position and syntactic distribution ................................................................... 30 1.3.2 TMA combinations .......................................................................................... 31 1.4 Outline of chapters ............................................................................................... 32 2 Chapter two: Creoles .................................................................................................... 34 2.1 A distinct linguistic group? .................................................................................. 34 2.2 The concept of a post-creole continuum .............................................................. 35 3 Chapter three: Background to the BCE language and community .............................. 39 3.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 39 3.2 Caribbean English Creoles ................................................................................... 39 3.3 Location of Bastimentos Island ............................................................................ 40 3.4 Issues related to name and status of BCE ............................................................ 41 3.4.1 Name ................................................................................................................ 41 3.4.2 Official recognition and identification issues .................................................. 42 3.4.3 BCE and Jamaican Creole ................................................................................ 43 3.4.4 Status as an endangered language .................................................................... 44 3 3.5 Ethnic groups in Panama ...................................................................................... 44 3.5.1 The Afro-Antillean ethnicity ............................................................................ 45 3.6 Socio-history of the Afro-Antillean community in Panama ................................ 46 3.7 Demographics for the Afro-Antillean community in Bocas del Toro ................. 48 3.8 Tourism ................................................................................................................ 50 3.9 Socio-cultural impact of tourism on the BCE community ................................... 52 3.10 BCE language in the community ......................................................................... 54 3.10.1 Domains of language use ............................................................................... 55 3.11 Summary and outlook .......................................................................................... 57 4 Chapter four: Research background ............................................................................. 60 4.1 Previous research on BCE .................................................................................... 60 4.2 Methodology ........................................................................................................ 62 4.2.1 Reasons for field trip ........................................................................................ 62 4.2.2 Source of funding ............................................................................................. 63 4.2.3 Fieldwork situation .......................................................................................... 63 4.2.4 Data collection ................................................................................................. 65 5 Chapter five: Grammatical background ....................................................................... 67 5.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 67 5.2 Temporal interpretation of the unmarked verb .................................................... 67 5.3 Simple clauses ...................................................................................................... 76 5.3.1 The copula domain ........................................................................................... 76 5.4 Conditional clauses .............................................................................................. 92 5.5 Negation ............................................................................................................... 95 4 5.5.1 Indepedent negators ......................................................................................... 96 5.5.2 Negative concord ........................................................................................... 103 6 Chapter six: Aspect in BCE ....................................................................................... 106 6.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 106 6.2 Theoretical and terminological issues ................................................................ 106 6.2.1 Viewpoint aspect ............................................................................................ 106 6.2.2 Lexical aspect and ‘situation type’ ................................................................. 107 6.3 Overview of aspect markers in BCE .................................................................. 111 6.3.1 The stative/dynamic distinction in BCE ........................................................ 112 6.4 Interaction of verbs with viewpoint aspect ........................................................ 113 6.4.1 Progressive ..................................................................................................... 113 6.4.2 Continuative stie de ........................................................................................ 131 6.4.3 Habituality ...................................................................................................... 132 6.5 Interaction of verbs with lexical aspect .............................................................. 146 6.5.1 Inchoative ....................................................................................................... 146 6.5.2 Completive don .............................................................................................. 150 6.5.3 Iterative stodi .................................................................................................. 154 6.6 Concluding remarks ........................................................................................... 156 7 Chapter seven: Tense markers in BCE....................................................................... 160 7.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 160 7.2 Theoretical and terminological issues ................................................................ 160 7.3 Overview of tense markers in BCE .................................................................... 163 7.4 Temporal uses of the unmarked verb ................................................................. 164 5 7.4.1 Present habitual .............................................................................................. 164 7.4.2 Perfect ............................................................................................................ 166 7.5 Past markers ....................................................................................................... 170 7.5.1 di ..................................................................................................................... 172 7.5.2 gaan ................................................................................................................ 189 7.5.3 Use of inherently past verb forms .................................................................. 190 7.5.4 wo ................................................................................................................... 193 7.5.5 Other uses of wo............................................................................................. 200 7.6 Future ................................................................................................................. 206 7.6.1 The future domain: tense versus prospective aspect ...................................... 206 7.6.2 Introduction to gwain & waan........................................................................ 209 7.6.3 luk fi ............................................................................................................... 219 7.6.4 wi ...................................................................................................................