PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/170203 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-10-02 and may be subject to change. VARIATION AND CHANGE IN VIRGIN ISLANDS DUTCH CREOLE TENSE, MODALITY AND ASPECT Published by LOT phone: +31 30 253 6111 Trans 10 3512 JK Utrecht e-mail: [email protected] The Netherlands http://www.lotschool.nl Cover illustration: Annaberg sugar mill ruins, St. John, US Virgin Islands. Picture taken by flickr user Navin75. Original in full color. Reproduced and adapted within the freedoms granted by the license terms (CC BY-SA 2.0) applied by the licensor. ISBN: 978-94-6093-235-9 NUR 616 Copyright © 2017: Robbert van Sluijs. All rights reserved. Variation and change in Virgin Islands Dutch Creole Tense, Modality and Aspect Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. dr. J.H.J.M. van Krieken, volgens besluit van het college van decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 11 mei 2017 om 10.30 uur precies door Robbert van Sluijs geboren op 23 januari 1987 te Heerlen Promotor: Prof. dr. P.C. Muysken Copromotor: Dr. M.C. van den Berg (UU) Manuscriptcommissie: Prof. dr. R.W.N.M. van Hout Dr. A. Bruyn (Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Den Haag) Prof. dr. F.L.M.P. Hinskens (VU) Prof. dr. S. Kouwenberg (University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica) Prof. dr. C.H.M. Versteegh Part of the research reported in this dissertation was funded by the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (KNAW). i TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v ABBREVIATIONS ix 1. VARIATION IN VIRGIN ISLANDS DUTCH CREOLE: TENSE-ASPECT- MODALITY 1 1.1. Introduction................................................................................... 1 1.2. Tense-modality-aspect................................................................... 4 1.3. Approaches to variation................................................................. 5 1.3.1 Early creole studies and language variation........................ 5 1.3.2 Creole continuum and variation studies.............................. 6 1.4. The study of creole TMA.............................................................. 7 1.4.1 Variation studies of creole TMA......................................... 7 1.4.2 The proto-typical creole TMA system................................ 8 1.4.2 (Contact-induced) grammaticalization and creole formation................................................................... 10 1.5. Research questions......................................................................... 11 1.6 Structure of the present dissertation.............................................. 12 2. VIRGIN ISLANDS DUTCH CREOLE: BACKGROUND 15 2.1. A history of language contact........................................................ 15 2.1.1. The language and its name.................................................. 15 2.1.2. Demography and language use in the Danish West Indies 18 2.1.3. The emergence of Dutch Creole.......................................... 23 2.1.4. The ancestral languages of the enslaved population in the formative period of Dutch Creole.............................. 27 2.1.5. Missionary activity in the Danish West Indies.................... 32 2.1.6. Language shift to English Creole and English.................... 34 2.2. The speakers and writers of Dutch Creole..................................... 38 2.2.1. Various groups of Dutch Creole language users................. 38 2.2.2. The NEHOL Database......................................................... 39 2.2.3. Letters (1738–1762).............................................................40 2.2.4. Missionary documents......................................................... 42 2.2.5. Planter dialogues.................................................................. 47 2.2.6. Documents of Afro-Caribbean Dutch Creole...................... 48 2.3. Studies of Virgin Islands Dutch Creole......................................... 62 2.4. A sketch of Virgin Islands Dutch Creole....................................... 66 2.4.1. Phonology............................................................................ 66 2.4.2. Noun phrase......................................................................... 69 ii 2.4.3. Verb phrase and TMA marking........................................... 73 2.4.4. Simple sentences.................................................................. 77 2.4.5. Complex sentences.............................................................. 79 2.4.6. Interrogative constructions and topicalization.................... 80 2.4.7. Concluding remarks............................................................. 81 3. WHAT’S PAST IS PAST: VARIATION IN THE EXPRESSION OF PAST TIME REFERENCE IN VIRGIN ISLANDS DUTCH CREOLE NARRATIVES 83 3.1. Introduction................................................................................... 83 3.2. Time reference and aspect............................................................. 83 3.2.1. Past time reference............................................................... 83 3.2.2. Aspect.................................................................................. 85 3.3. Methodology.................................................................................. 87 3.3.1. Quantitative variation analysis............................................ 87 3.3.2. The data............................................................................... 88 3.3.3. Variable context................................................................... 89 3.3.4. Analysis of the data............................................................. 93 3.4. Results............................................................................................ 94 3.4.1. Past time reference and aspect............................................ 94 3.4.2. Past marking and stativity................................................... 98 3.4.3. Past marking and narrative type........................................ 100 3.4.4. Marking on the preceding verb (syntactic priming).......... 103 . 3.5. Discussion.................................................................................... 110 3.5.1. Sociolectal differences....................................................... 110 3.5.2. Effects of language obsolescence...................................... 113 3.6. Conclusion................................................................................... 119 4. CHANGE OR VARIATION IN HISTORICAL DATA: A CASE STUDY OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS DUTCH CREOLE IMPERFECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE ASPECT MARKER 121 4.1. Introduction................................................................................. 121 4.2. Language change versus sociolinguistic variation...................... 122 4.3. Dutch Creole, its sources and varieties........................................ 124 4.3.1. Varieties of Dutch Creole.................................................. 124 4.3.2. The Dutch Creole sources.................................................. 126 4.4. Imperfective aspect...................................................................... 130 4.5. Le in the eighteenth century data................................................. 130 4.5.1. Le as used in the data......................................................... 130 4.5.2. Le as described in eighteenth century sources................... 133 4.5.3. Change or variation?.......................................................... 134 4.6. Lo and loop in the eighteenth century Dutch Creole data........... 137 4.6.1. Eighteenth century lo and loop: use in the data................ 137 4.6.2. Eighteenth century lo and loop: reports of use.................. 139 iii 4.6.3. Change or variation?.......................................................... 139 4.7. Lo in nineteenth and twentieth century Dutch Creole................. 142 4.7.1. Imperfective aspect............................................................ 143 4.7.2. Prospective aspect.............................................................. 144 4.7.3. Progressive construction.................................................... 145 4.8. Prospective lo lo........................................................................... 150 4.8.1. Attestations in the data...................................................... 150 4.8.2. Change or variation?.......................................................... 151 4.9. Conclusion................................................................................... 154 5. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERFECT KA AND COMPLETIVE KABA 157 5.1. Introduction................................................................................. 157 5.2. Analytic framework..................................................................... 159 5.2.1. Resultative aspect.............................................................. 160 5.2.2. Perfective aspect................................................................ 161 5.2.3. Perfect................................................................................ 162 5.2.4. Completives....................................................................... 165 5.3. Ka in Dutch Creole...................................................................... 168 5.3.1 Ka in the eighteenth century data.....................................