French Creoles: A Comprehensive and Comparative Grammar / Edition 1

by Anand Syea

Overview

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 provides 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, Reunion 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138015647
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/05/2017
Series:	Routledge Comprehensive Grammars
Pages:	520
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Anand Syea is Reader in Linguistics at the University of Westminster, UK.

Table of Contents

Introduction Creole Languages – an historical overview

What is a Creole?

How did Creoles develop?

Place of Creoles in education

Chapter 1 Morphology

Affixes - inflectional and derivational

Compounding

Chapter 2 Nouns

Common and proper nouns

Concrete and abstract nouns

Count and non-count nouns

Chapter 3 Articles

Definite article

Indefinite article

Zero article

Chapter 4 Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Possessive pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns

Reflexive pronouns

Chapter 5 Adjectives and Adverbs

Pre- and post-nominal adjectives

Augmentative and dimunitive adjectives

Adjective reduplication

Ordering adjectives

Adverbs (temporal, locational, manner, reason)

Chapter 6 Numerals and quantifiers

Types of numerals (ordinal, cardinal)

Quantifiers

Chapter 7 Verbs

Types of verbs (transitive, ditransitive, unaccusative, unergative, control, raising, causative verbs)

Verbs and their complements (finite and non-finite complements, defective complements, and small clause complements)

Serial verb constructions

Chapter 8 Tense, Mood, and Aspect markers

Ordering of tense, mood, and aspect markers

Modality (possibility, necessity, permission)

Chapter 9 Prepositions

Types of meaning expressed (e.g. dative, instrumental, location)

Chapter 10 Subordination

Subordinating conjunctions

Adjunct clauses

Chapter 11 Questions (types of questions: yes/no questions, wh-questions, multiple wh-questions, wh-in-situ questions, echo-questions)

Chapter 12 Relative clauses (restrictive and non-restrictive)

Relative pronouns

Strategies for forming relative clauses

Range of grammatical functions which can be relativized

Pied-piping and resumptive pronouns

Chapter 13 Focus constructions

Cleft constructions

Topic constructions

Chapter 14 Negation

Sentence and constituent negation

N(egative)-words

Relation between N-words and negation

Chapter 15 Sentence structure and word order

Subject-less sentences

Verb-less sentences

Objectless sentences

Bibliography