A QUESTION OF LANGUAGE VITALITY? - ON INTERROGATIVES IN AN ENDANGERED CREOLE Kathrin Brandt Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität zu Köln im Fach Englische Philologie vorgelegt von Kathrin Brandt TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES IV LIST OF FIGURES VI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS VII 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Creole studies 1 1.2 LanguAge endAngerment 4 1.3 Minimalist syntax and wh-questions 5 1.4 Research questions and the orgAnizAtion of this study 7 2 LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT 9 2.1 The linguistic situAtion 9 2.2 In favor of linguistic diversity 10 2.3 Models of lAnguAge loss 13 2.4 Assessing lAnguAge vitality 18 2.5 StructurAl consequences 29 3 SYNTACTIC THEORY OF INTERROGATIVES 34 3.1 Accounting for cross-linguistic vAriAtion 36 3.2 Landing sites 38 3.3 ConstrAints on wh-movement 42 3.4 Movement triggers 44 3.5 ClAuse typing 47 4 LOUISIANA CREOLE – HISTORY, SOCIOLINGUISTIC SETTING AND LINGUISTIC PROFILE 51 4.1 History 51 4.2 The genesis of LouisiAnA Creole 56 i 4.3 The sociolinguistic profile of South LouisiAnA 58 Louisiana Creole 58 Louisiana Regional French 60 Multilingual South Louisiana 61 Louisiana Creole as an endangered language 65 4.4 Selected aspects of LouisiAnA Creole grAmmAr 71 The verbal system 73 The nominal system 75 Constituent structure 77 The lexicon 80 5 METHODOLOGY 82 5.1 Field methods 82 5.2 Consultants, AnAlysis and the quAlitative approAch 91 5.3 Notation 96 6 SOCIOLINGUISTIC FINDINGS 98 6.1 DemogrAphics 98 Region 101 Education and occupation 102 6.2 LanguAge competence and multilinguAlism 105 6.3 LanguAge use 112 Interlocutors 112 Functions 127 6.4 LanguAge attitudes 137 7 LINGUISTIC DATA ANALYSIS 143 7.1 Previous reseArch on wh-questions in Creole lAnguAges 143 7.2 Previous reseArch on interrogAtives in LC 151 7.3 Questions in LC 154 Root questions 155 Embedded questions 157 Complex wh-questions 158 ii 7.3.3.1 Wh-scope-marking 158 7.3.3.2 Wh-islands 160 7.3.3.3 Adjunct islands 166 7.3.3.4 The that-t effect 168 Wh-in-situ 170 Multiple wh-questions 173 Polar questions 175 7.4 VAriAtion and the relAtion between sociolinguistics and syntactic structure 177 The form and distribution of wh-pronouns and the status of ki 177 Variation and socio-demographic variables 188 8 A GENERATIVE ANALYSIS OF WH-QUESTIONS IN LC 198 8.1 Root wh-questions 198 8.2 Long-distance questions and successive cyclicity 201 8.3 Ki-insertion clauses, wh-copying and wh-scope mArking 206 9 CONCLUSION 221 9.1 Sociolinguistics 221 9.2 InterrogAtive System 223 9.3 Wh-Copying 225 9.4 Suggestions for future reseArch 226 APPENDIX 228 A. Informed Consent Form 228 B. Sociolinguistic QuestionnAire 229 C. MTAT 233 D. Questions after Stories 238 LIST OF REFERENCES 240 iii LIST OF TABLES Table 2-1 Classification by Fishman (1991) .......................................................................... 20 Table 2-2 Classification by Wurm (2002) .............................................................................. 21 Table 2-3 UNESCO on the availability of written materials ............................................ 23 Table 2-4 Framework for classifying languages .................................................................. 26 Table 2-5 Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale ................................. 28 Table 5-1 Biographic/linguistic biographic information collected in the sociolinguistic questionnaire ...................................................................................................... 82 Table 6-1 Age of participants ...................................................................................................... 98 Table 6-2 Gender, ethnicity and place of residence ........................................................... 99 Table 6-3 Demographics of participants .............................................................................. 100 Table 6-4 Occupation of participants ..................................................................................... 103 Table 6-5 Education level of participants ............................................................................. 104 Table 6-6 Proficiency by race .................................................................................................... 106 Table 6-7 Proficiency by gender .............................................................................................. 106 Table 6-8 Proficiency by region ............................................................................................... 106 Table 6-9 Proficiency by age group ........................................................................................ 106 Table 6-10 L1 of participants .................................................................................................... 108 Table 6-11 Language use in childhood by interlocutors ................................................ 113 Table 6-12 Usage with grandparents in childhood by age group ............................... 113 Table 6-13 Usage with parents in childhood by age group ........................................... 114 Table 6-14 Usage with siblings in childhood by age group ........................................... 115 Table 6-15 Usage with classmates in childhood by age group .................................... 115 Table 6-16 Usage with friends in childhood by age group ............................................ 116 Table 6-17 Best language by race ............................................................................................ 120 Table 6-18 Language use by interlocutors ........................................................................... 121 Table 6-19 Language use with friends/neighbors by age group ................................ 123 Table 6-20 Language used with parents during childhood by race ........................... 124 Table 6-21 Language used with parents during childhood by sex ............................. 125 Table 6-22 Language used with grandparent during childhood by sex ................... 125 Table 6-23 Language used with siblings during childhood by sex ............................. 126 Table 6-24 Frequency for i. "I have regular transactions in LC in my everyday life." ............................................................................................................................................................... 127 Table 6-25 Average frequency rating of usage statements ........................................... 128 Table 6-26 Frequency for vii. “I dream in Louisiana Creole” by age group ............ 131 iv Table 6-27 Frequency for i. “I have regular transactions in LC in my everyday life” by age group ..................................................................................................................................... 132 Table 6-28 Frequency for vi. "I think in Louisiana Creole" by race ........................... 132 Table 7-1 Interrogative Pronouns in LC ............................................................................... 152 Table 7-2 Acceptability judgments for extraction out of adjunct islands by syntactic function ........................................................................................................................... 167 Table 7-3 Acceptability for wh-in-situ in root questions by syntactic function.... 171 Table 7-4 Interrogative PRNs in LC ........................................................................................ 178 Table 7-5 Interrogative Pronouns in the study’s corpus................................................ 179 Table 7-6 Frequency of wh-pronouns in the MTAT corpus .......................................... 184 Table 7-7 Distribution of ki as the final element in wh-pronouns ............................. 185 Table 7-8 Distribution of initial and intermediate wh-pronouns in ki-insertion clauses ................................................................................................................................................ 187 Table 7-9 Functional distribution of final ki by LC proficiency ................................... 191 Table 7-10 Functional distribution of final ki by age group .......................................... 191 Table 7-11 Acceptability ratings of wh-in-situ questions by functional type and LRF/SF knowledge ........................................................................................................................ 195 Table 7-12 Acceptability of wh-scope-marking by age groups ................................... 197 Table 7-13 Acceptability of wh-scope-marking by race ................................................. 197 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4-1 Southern Louisiana - the French triangle and LC speaking areas .......... 65 Figure 6-1 Hometowns ................................................................................................................ 101 Figure 6-2 Languages known .................................................................................................... 107 Figure 6-3 Transgenerational ‘best’ language .................................................................... 109 Figure 6-4 Language competence other than English in children and grandchildren .................................................................................................................................. 111 Figure 6-5 LC competence in children and grandchildren ............................................ 112 Figure 6-6 Usage with grandparents in childhood by age group ................................ 114 Figure 6-7