To mum, dad, Matteo and Filippo. And to all the people who think that the difference between a language and a dialect has something to do with linguistics considerations, whereas it is only a matter of political and economical power. Don't be ashamed of speaking the idiom that best reflects your inner self. “Pa obliyé, tout biten ka évoliyé. […] Avan lang fwansé té tin Laten. Laten, kon manmanpoul kouvé zé a-y é éklò : Pangnòl, Italyen, Fwansé, Pòwtigè... Lè yo vin manman, yo fè pitit osi : fwansé fè kréyòl, Pòwtigè fè Brézilyen, Pangnòl fè Papamiento... Pa obliyé on tipoul sé on poul ki piti é poulòsdonk kréyòl kon fwansé sé on lang.” [Moïse, 2005] Table of contents i. Acknowledgements ….............................................................................................11 ii. English Abstract ….................................................................................................13 iii. Italian Abstract …..................................................................................................14 iv. Symbols ….............................................................................................................15 Introduction …..........................................................................................................19 PART 1: ON CREOLE LANGUAGES AND GUADALOUPEAN CREOLE Chapter 1: On Creole languages ….........................................................................25 1.1 Pidgins and Creole languages …..........................................................................25 1.2 On Creole genesis …............................................................................................28 1.2.1 From monogenesis to polygenesis …..........................................................28 1.2.1.1 What the TMA systems teach us ….................................................29 1.2.2 What scholars agree on …...........................................................................34 1.3 Creole languages in the world …..........................................................................35 1.3.1 English-based Creoles …............................................................................36 1.3.2 Spanish-based Creoles …............................................................................42 1.3.3 Portuguese-based Creoles ….......................................................................44 1.3.4 Other Creole languages …..........................................................................47 1.4 French-based Creole languages ….......................................................................48 1.4.1 Carribean French Creoles …........................................................................49 1.4.1.1 Haitian Creole ….............................................................................50 1.4.1.2 Lesser Antillean Creole(s) …...........................................................51 1.4.1.3 Guyanese ….....................................................................................52 1.4.2 Bourbonnais Creoles …...............................................................................53 1.4.2.1 Mauritian Creole ….........................................................................54 1.4.2.2 Réunion Creole …............................................................................55 1.4.2.3 Seychellois Creole ….......................................................................56 Chapter 2: On Guadeloupe and Guadeloupean Creole …...................................57 2.1 Geography of the islands of Guadaloupe ….........................................................57 2.1.1 Guadeloupean people …..............................................................................59 2.2 History of Guadeloupe ….....................................................................................59 2.3 On Guadaloupean Creole ….................................................................................61 2.3.1 A denomination problem ….........................................................................62 2.3.2 Lexical vs functional elements …...............................................................63 2.3.3 On the independence of the language from French …................................65 PART 2: PHONOLOGICAL AND MORPHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA Chapter 3: The phonology of Guadeloupean Creole …........................................67 3.1 From French to Creole phonology …...................................................................67 3.1.1 Phonological loss …....................................................................................68 3.1.2 Phonological insertion …............................................................................70 3.2 Borrowed unanalysed chunks …..........................................................................73 Chapter 4: The morphology of Guadeloupean Creole …....................................75 4.1 Word-formation processes …...............................................................................78 4.1.1 Derivation …...............................................................................................78 4.1.1.1 Prefixation …...................................................................................79 4.1.1.2 Suffixation …..................................................................................80 4.1.2 Compounding …..........................................................................................83 4.1.2.1 Endocentric compounds …..............................................................84 4.1.2.2 Exocentric compounds …................................................................85 4.2 Figures of speech ….............................................................................................87 4.3 Loanwords …........................................................................................................90 PART 3: THE SENTENCE OF GUADELOUPEAN CREOLE Chapter 5: The Verb Phrase …...............................................................................95 5.1 Verbal morphology …...........................................................................................95 5.2 Lexical verbs …....................................................................................................97 5.2.1 Arguments and thematic structure …..........................................................97 5.2.1.1 Transitive Vs …...............................................................................98 5.2.1.2 Ditransitive Vs …..........................................................................100 5.2.1.3 Intransitive Vs …...........................................................................102 5.2.2 Clausal complements …............................................................................105 5.3 Functional Vs ….................................................................................................108 5.3.1 The copula …............................................................................................108 5.3.2 Ni (“to have”) ….......................................................................................114 5.3.3 Bare-stem Vs ….........................................................................................117 5.3.3.1 Constructions of the type V+V ….................................................119 5.3.3.2 Modal Vs …..................................................................................122 5.3.3.3 Restructuring Vs ….......................................................................124 Chapter 6: The IP-layer ….....................................................................................127 6.1 Strength of INFL …............................................................................................127 6.1.1 The position of frequency Advs …............................................................128 6.2 The order of the TMA particles …......................................................................131 6.3 Overt TMA morphemes ….................................................................................134 6.3.1 The morpheme ka …..................................................................................134 6.3.1.1 Present progressive (ka1) …...........................................................135 6.3.1.2 Habits and general truths (ka2) …..................................................136 6.3.1.3 Temporal complements (ka3) …....................................................137 6.3.2 The distinction between eventive and stative verbs …..............................138 6.3.3 The morpheme té …...................................................................................139 6.3.4 The morpheme ké …..................................................................................141 6.4 Covert TMA morphemes …...............................................................................143 6.4.1 Past non-overt marker …...........................................................................143 6.4.2 Possible combinations of the morphemes ….............................................145 6.4.2.1 Té ka …..........................................................................................145 6.4.2.2 Ké ka ….........................................................................................146 6.4.2.3 Té Ké ….........................................................................................147 6.4.2.4 Té ké ka ….....................................................................................148