French Creoles

A Comprehensive and Comparative Grammar

French Creoles: A Comprehensive and Comparative Grammar is the ﬁrst

complete reference to present the morphology, grammar, and syntax of a representative selection of French creoles in one volume.

The book is organised to promote a thorough understanding of the grammar of French creoles and presents its complexities in a concise and readable form. An extensive index, cross-referencing, and a generous use of headings provide readers with immediate access to the information they require.

The varieties included within the volume provide a representative collection of French creoles from the Indian, Atlantic, and Paciﬁc Oceans, including: Mauritian Creole, Seychelles Creole, Réunion Creole (where relevant), Haitian Creole, Martinique Creole, Guadeloupe Creole, Guyanese French Creole, Karipuna, St. Lucia Creole, Louisiana Creole, and Tayo.

By providing a comprehensive description of a range of French creoles in a clear and non-technical manner, this grammar is the ideal reference for all linguists and researchers with an interest in Creole studies and in French, descriptive and historical linguistics.

Anand Syea is Reader in Linguistics at the University of Westminster (London) and a native speaker of Mauritian Creole.

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French Creoles

A Comprehensive and Comparative Grammar

Anand Syea

First published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park,Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge 711Third Avenue, NewYork, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of th e T a ylor & Francis Group, an informa business

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-01564-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-38858-8 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon and Gill Sans by Apex CoVantage, LLC

To my family and my very good friend, Robert Leyland

Contents

xvii xviii xix
Acknowledgements List of abbreviations List of symbols

1.0 Introduction 1.1 Theories of creole development
1.1.1 Monogenesis theory
122

1.1.5 Feature pool hypothesis – an ecological approach
1.2 Contemporary debates
56
1.3 The comparative approach 1.4 About this book
79

10 11 12 13
1.5.1 The Atlantic French creoles 1.5.2 The French creoles of the Americas 1.5.3 The French creoles of the Indian Ocean 1.5.4 The French creole of New Caledonia (Paciﬁc)

2.0 Introduction 2.1 General 2.2 Nouns in French
2.2.1 Subcategories of nouns
14 14 16 16

Contents

2.2.2 Gender 2.2.3 Number 2.2.4 Agreement 2.2.5 Word order
18 20 21 23 23 25 28 31 35 35 41
2.3 Nouns in the French creoles
2.3.1 Subcategories of nouns 2.3.2 Gender 2.3.3 Number 2.3.4 Deﬁniteness and speciﬁcity 2.3.5 Bare nouns 2.3.6 Noun-noun constructions 2.3.7 Nouns and derivational morphology

3.0 Introduction 3.1 General
47 47 49 49 50 51 52 53 59 61 74 78 84
3.2 Determiners in French
3.2.1 The definite article 3.2.2 The indefinite article 3.2.3 The partitive article
3.3 Determiners in the French creoles
3.3.1 Loss of French definite articles 3.3.2 The indefinite article 3.3.3 The definite determiner 3.3.4 The demonstrative determiner 3.3.5 The possessive determiner
3.4 Concluding remarks

85 85 86 86 90 90 91 92 93
4.2 Pronouns in French
4.2.1 Personal pronouns 4.2.2 Demonstrative pronouns 4.2.3 Possessive pronouns 4.2.4 Reﬂexive pronouns 4.2.5 Impersonal/expletive pronouns
4.3 Pronouns in the French creoles

Contents

4.3.1 Personal pronouns in the French creoles

4.3.1.1 Personal pronouns in the IOC 4.3.1.2 Personal pronouns in Haitian 4.3.1.3 Personal pronouns in Lesser
Antillean creoles

93 93 96

98
100 101

4.3.1.4 Personal pronouns in Guyanese 4.3.1.5 Personal pronouns in Karipuna 4.3.1.6 Personal pronouns in Louisiana Creole 102

4.3.2 Demonstrative pronouns in the French creoles

4.3.2.1 Demonstrative pronouns in the IOC 4.3.2.2 Demonstrative pronouns in Haitian 4.3.2.3 Demonstrative pronouns in
Lesser Antillean creoles

104 104 105

106 107

Guyanese and Karipuna
4.3.2.5 Demonstrative pronouns in
Louisiana Creole

4.3.3 Possessive pronouns in the French creoles

4.3.3.1 Possessive pronouns in the IOC 4.3.3.2 Possessive pronouns in the Atlantic
French creoles

108 110 110

4.3.3.3 Possessive pronouns in Karipuna and Lousiana Creole

112 115 115 119
4.3.4 Reﬂexive pronouns in the French creoles

4.3.4.1 Reflexive pronouns in the IOC 4.3.4.2 Reflexive pronouns in Haitian 4.3.4.3 Reflexive pronouns in Lesser
Antillean creoles

121 122

4.3.4.4 Reflexive pronouns in Guyanese and Karipuna
4.3.4.5 Reflexive pronouns in Louisiana
Creole
4.3.4.6 Reflexive pronouns in Tayo

4.3.5 Impersonal/expletive pronouns in the French creoles
123 124

126 126 127 129

4.3.5.1 Impersonal/expletive pronouns in the IOC
4.3.5.2 Impersonal/expletive pronouns in Haitian
4.3.5.3 Impersonal/expletive pronouns in Lesser Antillean creoles

Contents

4.3.5.4 Impersonal/expletive pronouns in Guyanese and Karipuna

4.3.5.5 Impersonal/expletive pronouns in Louisiana Creole

132 134 135

5.0 Introduction 5.1 General 5.2 Adjectives in French
5.2.1 Adjectives as modiﬁers
136 136 137 137 138 139 139 140 141 143 144 145 145 146 148 151 152 153 155 156 159 161 162

5.2.1.1 Post-nominal adjectives 5.2.1.2 Pre-nominal adjectives 5.2.1.3 Pre- and post-nominal adjectives

5.2.2 Adjective order 5.2.3 Agreement between adjectives and nouns 5.2.4 Adjectives as heads and complements 5.2.5 Adjectives as nouns and adverbs 5.2.6 Comparative and superlative adjectives
5.3 Adjectives in the French creoles
5.3.1 Post-nominal adjectives 5.3.2 Pre-nominal adjectives 5.3.3 Pre- and post-nominal adjectives 5.3.4 Adjective order 5.3.5 Adjectives as heads and complements 5.3.6 Adjectives as nouns and adverbs 5.3.7 Comparative and superlative adjectives 5.3.8 Adjective reduplication 5.3.9 Adjective compounds

163 163 165 166 173 178 179
6.2 Adverbs in French 6.3 Adverbs in the French creoles
6.3.1 Adverb order 6.3.2 Adverb reduplication

Contents

7.0 Introduction 7.1 General 7.2 Prepositions in French 7.3 Prepositions in the French creoles
7.3.1 Absence of French grammatical prepositions 7.3.2 The semantics of prepositions 7.3.3 The syntax of prepositions

7.3.3.1 Preposition reanalysis

180 180 182 183 183 190 196 199 202

8.0 Introduction 8.1 General 8.2 Verbs in French
203 203 205 206 211 211 214 214 220 224 225 228 229 231 236 240 245 248 252
8.2.1 French verb morphology
8.3 Verbs in the French creoles
8.3.1 Morphology of verbs 8.3.2 Typology of verbs in the French creoles

8.3.2.1 Transitive verbs 8.3.2.2 Ditransitive verbs 8.3.2.3 Unaccusative verbs 8.3.2.4 Unergative verbs 8.3.2.5 Ergative verbs

8.3.3 Complex-transitive verbs 8.3.4 Raising verbs 8.3.5 Control verbs 8.3.6 Existential verbs 8.3.7 Causative verbs 8.3.8 Serial verbs

9.0 Introduction 9.1 General 9.2 Tense, mood, and aspect in French 9.3 Tense, mood, and aspect in the French creoles
9.3.1 Tense in the French creoles

9.3.1.1 Present tense

254 254 256 258 263 263

Contents

9.3.1.2 Past tense 9.3.1.3 Future tense

9.3.2 Aspect in the French creoles 9.3.3 Modality in the French creoles
9.4 Order of tense, modal, aspect markers 9.5 Concluding remarks
269 272 275 284 294 297

10.0 Introduction 10.1 General 10.2 Negative sentences in French 10.3 Negative sentences in the French creoles 10.4 Negative words in the French creoles 10.5 Concluding remarks
299 299 301 305 311 316

318 318 319 322 325 330 333 342 351
11.2 Typology of sentences in French 11.3 Typology of sentences in the French creoles 11.4 Word order in the French creoles 11.5 Structure of sentences in the French creoles 11.6 Subject-less and object-less sentences 11.7 Independent verb-less sentences 11.8 Concluding remarks

12.0 Introduction 12.1 General 12.2 Clausal complements and complementisers in French 12.3 Clausal complements and complementisers in the French creoles
353 353 355

359 360 364 367 369
12.3.1 Clausal complements and complementisers in the IOC
12.3.2 Clausal complements and complementisers in Haitian
12.3.3 Clausal complements and complementisers in Lesser Antillean creoles
12.3.4 Clausal complements and complementisers in St. Lucian

Contents

12.3.5 Clausal complements and complementisers in Guyanese
12.3.6 Clausal complements and complementisers in Karipuna
371 373
12.3.7 Clausal complements and complementisers in Louisiana Creole
12.4 Small clause complements in the French creoles 12.5 Concluding remarks
374 377 381

382 382 384 387 387 391
13.2 Relative clauses in French 13.3 Relative clauses in the French creoles
13.3.1 Relative clauses in the IOC 13.3.2 Relative clauses in Haitian 13.3.3 Relative clauses in Martinican, Guadeloupean,
St. Lucian, and Guyanese
13.3.4 Relative clauses in Karipuna 13.3.5 Relative clauses in Louisiana Creole 13.3.6 Relative clauses in Tayo
13.4 Non-ﬁnite relative clauses in the French creoles 13.5 Free relatives in the French creoles 13.6 Concluding remarks
394 398 400 403 404 406 408

14.0 Introduction 14.1 General 14.2 Questions in French 14.3 Questions in the French creoles
14.3.1 Yes/no questions
410 410 412 415 415 418 418 431 433 435 436 438 439 441
14.3.2 Wh-questions

14.3.2.1 Direct wh-questions 14.3.2.2 Indirect wh-questions 14.3.2.3 Long wh-questions 14.3.2.4 Multiple wh-questions 14.3.2.5 Wh-in-situ questions

14.3.3 Veriﬁcation tag questions
14.4 A note on questions in Tayo 14.5 Concluding remarks

Contents

15.0 Introduction 15.1 General 15.2 Cleft, topic, and left dislocated constructions in French 15.3 Cleft, topic, and left dislocated constructions in the
French creoles
443 443 445

447 448 448 454
15.3.1 Cleft constructions

15.3.1.1 Cleft constructions in the IOC 15.3.1.2 Cleft constructions in Haitian 15.3.1.3 Cleft constructions in Martinican and Guadeloupean
15.3.1.4 Cleft constructions in St. Lucian 15.3.1.5 Cleft constructions in Guyanese 15.3.1.6 Cleft constructions in Karipuna 15.3.1.7 Cleft constructions in Louisiana Creole 15.3.1.8 Summary

458 460 461 463 463 464

15.3.2.1 T opic constructions in the French creoles 467

15.3.2.1.1 Topic constructions in the IOC
15.3.2.1.2 Topic constructions in Haitian
467 470
15.3.2.1.3 Topic constructions in
Martinican and Guadeloupean
Karipuna
471 473
Louisiana Creole
15.3.3 Dislocated constructions in the French creoles

15.3.3.1 Left dislocated constructions in the IOC

474 475

15.3.3.2 Left dislocated constructions in Haitian 478 15.3.3.3 Left dislocated constructions in Martinican and Guadeloupean
15.3.3.4 Left dislocated constructions in
Guyanese and St. Lucian

478 481

15.3.3.5 Left dislocated constructions in
Karipuna and Louisiana Creole

482 484

Bibliography Index
486 495

Tables

3.1
Derivational morphology in French Agglutinated indeﬁnite articles in Louisiana Creole and the IOC The demonstrative determiners in the French creoles French attributive possessive determiner The possessive determiner in the French creoles French personal pronoun system
57 75 79 79 87
3.2 3.3 3.4 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9
French absolute possessive pronouns IOC personal pronoun system
91 93 96 97
Réunion Creole personal pronoun system Haitian personal pronoun system Lesser Antillean personal pronoun system Guyanese personal pronoun system Karipuna personal pronouns
98
100 101 102 109 110 114 115 125
Louisiana Creole personal pronoun system
4.10 Demonstrative pronouns in the French creoles 4.11 Possessive pronouns in the IOC 4.12 Absolute possessive pronouns in Réunion Creole 4.13 Possessive pronouns in the French creoles 4.14 Reﬂexive pronouns in the French creoles 4.15 Distribution of the impersonal, pleonastic/expletive pronouns in the French creoles
5.1 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4
134 158 168 169 170 171
Distribution of comparative markers in the French creoles Types of adverbs in the IOC Types of adverbs in Haitian Creole Types of adverbs in Martinican Types of adverbs in Karipuna

Tables

6.5 Types of adverbs in Louisiana Creole 8.1 Existential verbs in the French creoles 8.2 Causative verbs in the French creoles 9.1 Inventory of tense, mood, and aspect markers in the French creoles
9.2 Summary of modality markers in the French creoles
11.1 Referential, arbitrary, and expletive null subjects and objects in the French creoles
172 244 247

283 293

342 424 485
14.1 Question words in the French creoles 15.1 Topic, cleft, and left dislocation in the French creoles

Acknowledgements

I am immensely grateful to Paul Bennett for his detailed comments on the chapters in this book. I would also like to thank him for his support, kindness, and generosity over the last thirty-odd years.

I am also grateful to Alain Kihm from CNRS (Paris) for reading and commenting on some of the chapters.

I would also like to thank members of GDRI-Seepicla group (including Anne Zribi-Hertz, Olivier Bonami, and Emmanuel Schang, amongst others) for inviting me to be part of the European research group on French creoles. The meetings I attended were very fruitful and inspiring and gave me plenty to think about when it came to planning this book.

My thanks also to the University of Westminster for granting me research leave for one semester to work on this book.

Finally, I thank my wife, Susan, for her support and my daughter, Emma, for her support and help with proofreading the manuscript. Needless to say all errors remain my own.

Abbreviations

ADVP AP
Adverbial phrase Adjectival phrase
Lit M
Literally Martinican Creole Mauritian Creole Negative Noun phrase Perfective Plural Prepositional phrase Present
COMP Complementiser DDEF DEM DET EMPH Emphasiser Eq Fr FUT G
MC NEG NP PERF PLU PP PRES PROG QREL SSt. L T1s 2s 3s 1p 2p 3p
Dominican Deﬁnite Demonstrative Determiner

Equative French Future
Progressive Question marker Relative pronoun Seychelles Creole St. Lucian Creole Tayo Creole First person singular Second person singular Third person singular First person plural Second person plural Third person plural
Guyanese French Creole Guadeloupean Creole Haitian Creole Habitual Indian Ocean creoles (Seychelles, Mauritius, Rodrigues) Irrealis Karipuna Creole Louisiana Creole
Gu HHAB IOC

French Creoles

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