: John McWhorter, Jeff Good
: A Grammar of Saramaccan Creole Grammar of Saramaccan Creole
: De Gruyter Mouton
: 9783110278262
: Mouton Grammar Library [MGL]ISSN
: 1
: CHF 235.00
:
: Allgemeine und Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft
: English
: 257
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: PDF
< >Saramaccan has been central to various debates regarding the origin and nature of creole languages. Being the most removed of all English-based creoles from European language structure in terms of phonology, morphology and syntax, it has been seen as one of the most extreme instantiations of the creolization process. This is the first full-length description of Saramaccan. The grammar documents, in particular, a valence-sensitive system of indicating movement and direction via serial verb constructions, hitherto overlooked amidst the generalized phenomenon of serialization itself.



< >John H. McWhorter, Columbia University, New York, USA;Jeff Good, University at Buffalo, New York, USA.
Abbreviations11
Introduction13
1 Segmental phonology19
1.1. Segment inventory19
1.1.1. Introduction19
1.1.2. Consonants20
1.1.2.1. Oral stops20
1.1.2.2. Plain nasals and prenasalized stops25
1.1.2.3. Fricatives28
1.1.2.4. Approximants30
1.1.3. Vowels33
1.1.3.1. Basic vowel qualities33
1.1.3.2. Nasal vowels35
1.1.3.3. Long vowels and vowel combinations36
1.2. Phonotactics42
1.2.1. Syllable structure and epenthetic vowels42
1.2.2. Co-occurrence restrictions and related kinds of patterns43
1.2.3. Ideophones45
1.3. Lexical strata46
1.4. Sporadic alternations47
2 Prosodic phonology48
2.1. Introduction48
2.2. Word-level prosody48
2.2.1. Introduction48
2.2.2. Accentual words50
2.2.2.1. Words with high tones and TBU’s unspecified for tone50
2.2.2.2. Accented words with short syllables51
2.2.2.3. Accented words with “heavy” syllables53
2.2.2.4. Manifestations of stress and possible foot structures54
2.2.2.5. Minimal pairs57
2.2.3. Tonal words57
2.2.3.1. High tones and low tones57
2.2.3.2. Indeterminacy in determining if a word is marked for tone or accent59
2.2.3.3. Minimal pairs and tonal features of morphological processes60
2.2.3.4. Lack of evidence for stress61
2.2.3.5. Ideophones62
2.2.4. Word-level prosody: Exceptions62
2.3. Phrasal prosody63
2.3.1. Tonal plateauing64
2.3.1.1. Compounds and regular reduplication64
2.3.1.2. Noun phrases65
2.3.1.3. Adpositional phrases67
2.3.1.4. Tones in the verbal complex68
2.3.1.5. Simple clauses68
2.3.1.6. Adverbial expressions69
2.3.1.7. Interaction between intonational processes and plateauing70
2.3.2. Tones in serial verb constructions71
2.4. Intonational processes75
2.4.1. Overview75
2.4.2. Utterance-final lowering75
2.4.3. Negative lowering76
2.4.4. Emphasis within a clause78
2.4.5. Yes/no questions79
2.5. Notes on tonal and intonational phonetics and problems of analysis80
3 Morphology and morphophonemics81
3.1. Derivational morphology81
3.1.1. Reduplication81
3.1.1.1. Deverbal resultatives81
3.1.1.2. Intensification82
3.1.1.3. X-like82
3.1.1.4. Aggregate plural82
3.1.1.5. Nominalization83
3.1.1.6. Tone plateauing in reduplicated words83
3.1.2. The nominalizers -ma and -wa~´84
3.1.3. An incipient derivational affix?84
3.2. Inflectional morphology85
3.2.1. Imperfective tá with gó ‘to go’85
3.2.2. Tonal marking of verb serialization85
3.2.3. Nominal marker a-?86
3.3. Morphophonemics86
3.3.1. Possessive (f)u86
3.3.2. Other morphophonemic processes with fu87
3.3.3. Negation and pronouns87
3.3.4. Third-person singular e~87
3.3.4.1. After a verb87
3.3.4.2. With locative marker a88
3.3.4.3. With negator .á89
3.3.4.4. With copula da89
3.3.4.5. With nja~´ ‘eat’ andfo~´ ‘beat’89
3.3.5. Locative (n)a89
3.3.6. Hortative verb bé90
3.4. Compounding90
3.5. Rapid speech phenomena92
4 The noun phrase94
4.1. Determiners94
4.2. Demonstratives97
4.3. Possession98
4.4. Relative clauses103
4.4.1. The accessibility hierarchy103
4.5. Quantifiers106
4.6. Coordination110
4.7. Gerunds110
4.8. Adjective + wa~´ ‘one’111