Areal Linguistics: Pidgins and Creoles

LING455/SISAF490B

Instructor: Alicia Beckford Wassink	Location and Time:
Office: Padelford A217	TTh 10:30am-12:20pm
Office Hours: W 12:30-1:30pm, and by appt.	GLD 322 (subject to change)
Office Phone: 616-9589
Dept. Phone: 543-2046 (Dept. of Linguistics Office)
Email: wassink@u.washington.edu

Course Links :

Syllabus

Course email discussion list

Electronic Reserves

Student Language Sketches

In this course, we will survey aspects of the linguistic structure, history, and social context of pidgin and creole languages spoken, past and present, in several locations around the world. We will consider their histories of formation and development, ask whether and how they are different from non-creole languages, and learn about the grammatical features common to language varieties that emerged from specific types of language contact situations (including, but not limited to: trade, colonization, and migration). Pidgins and creoles are believed by many scholars to be important to linguistic theory because they provide a window into universal grammar and the evolution of the human language faculty. We will explore the grounds for and against such claims. Students should have had an upper-level introduction to linguistics. Prerequisites: LING400 or instructor's permission.

Linguistic research since the 1880s has tended to focus more on Atlantic Creoles than Pacific ones. As a result, linguists know the most about those languages emerging in contexts of plantation economy-formation and the African slave trade (e.g., in the plantations of Jamaican and Haiti, or the fort settlements where slaves were held prior to the Middle Passage in Sierra Leone). As a result, the majority of languages we discuss will be part of the African diaspora. Interested students may, however, work on Pacific Creoles, as well.

By the end of the quarter, students will be "specialists" in one pidgin or creole variety of their choice--its linguistic structure, parent languages, historical development, and social setting. This specialization will be developed across the quarter as students "adopt" a language, and conduct an ongoing, data-based analysis project that elaborates on the features of their chosen language with respect to each of the main syllabus topics. Students will be conversant in the claims, strengths and weaknesses of the important theories of pidgin and creole genesis; in definitions of linguistic adequacy and simplification theories.

Evaluation:

1. 35%--Analysis exercises: 3 graded analysis assignments building on basic concepts and comparing the linguistic features of several pidgins and creoles, using texts and recordings. Students may use their notes and work individually or in pairs.

2. 20%--Discussion leading: Students (IN GROUPS OF 2-4) will take a turn leading classroom discussion of one “sketch of an individual language.” This language may be a pidgin or creole, parent language of a pidgin or creole. Students may choose one of the languages listed in the Arends et al text (weeks 4, 5), or from another reading. Be sure to consult the list of language resources listed on the course website.

3. 35%--Language report: All students will adopt (by the end of week 3) a language on which they will focus for the quarter. The linguistic structure, historical development and social context of this language will be documented in a final portfolio (8-10 pages). Be creative! You may include recordings of your language, songs, writings, etc. Students must meet with the instructor to discuss their plans during week 5. Students will orally present the contents of their portfolio in class during the last two weeks of the quarter. The portfolio is to be handed in at the beginning of the final examination period scheduled for this course: 10:30-12:20 p.m. Monday, Jun. 5, 2006. No extensions will be granted, so please don't ask!

4. 10%--Library Laboratory (see syllabus, meeting 5)

Required reading:

Course text: Arends, J., Muysken, P, and Smith, N. (1994) Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Required reading (on electronic reserve):

Adendorff, Ralph D. (1993) Ethnographic Evidence of the Social Meaning of Fanakalo in South Africa, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 8(1): pp. 1-27.

Holm, John (1988) Phonology. Pidgins and Creoles, vol. 1: theory and structure. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, pp. 105-143.

Rickford, John R. (1983) Standard and Non-standard Language Attitudes in a Creole continuum. Society for Caribbean Linguistics Occasional Paper No. 16, pp. 1-27.

Wilt, Timothy L. (1994) A Survey of the Linguistic Preferences of Cameroon Pidgin English Speakers, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 9(1): pp. 51-64.

DeGraff, M. (2001) Creolization, Language Change, and Language Acquisition: a Prolegomenon, ch 1. Language Creation and Language Change: creolization, diachrony, and development. Cambridge, MA: MIT, pp. 1-18

Other resources:

The course website contains...

Examples of sketches completed in past quarters.

A bibliography of books, articles, recordings, and visual materials on pidgin and creole languages contained in the UW Libraries. This is intended to help you quickly discover what languages are represented in our holdings (including information on the language’s parent languages), and help you avoid choosing a language for which the UW has few or no materials.

For your information…

A. Following are some of the principal journals in sociolinguistic research, within which creole linguistics is situated:

Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, John Benjamins

Language Variation and Change, Cambridge University Press

Journal of English Linguistics, Sage

English World-Wide, John Benjamins

B. Conferences: Society for Pidgin and Creole Languages, Society for Caribbean Linguistics

C. Internet Presence: “CREOLE TALK” is a (VERY ACTIVE!) online discussion group of scholars working in pidgins, creoles, and language contact. Here are their vital statistics:

to Post: CreoleTalk@yahoogroups.com

to Subscribe: CreoleTalk-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

to UnSubscribe: CreoleTalk-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

List Mom: CreoLIST-owner@yahoogroups.com

SYLLABUS

Meeting	Date	Topic	Come to class prepared to discuss…
*I. Background and General Aspects (Arends, Part I):*
1	T3/28	Introduction & Preliminary Definitions Where in the world are creoles and pidgins spoken? Historical linguistics and the genetic affiliations of creoles	student interests and aims
2	TH3/30	History of pidgin and creole studies ("creole linguistics") Creole languages: Types and socio-historical background	ch. 1,2
3 (WK 2)	T4/4	Pidgin varieties	ch. 3
4	TH4/6	Mixed languages and language intertwining	ch. 4
5 (WK 3)	T4/11	LIBRARY LABORATORY Workday in the Library

II. Sociolinguistic Issues in Creole Variation
6	TH4/13	Variation in linguistic structure	ch. 5
7 (WK 4)	T4/18	Variation: interaction with social factors discussion of student’s selected languages	Rickford
8	TH4/20	Variation: language attitudes	Wilt, Adendorff
*III. Sketches of Individual Languages (Arends, Part III):* (subject to change according to student interest)
9(WK 5)	T4/25	Suggestions: Group sketches of Atlantic Creoles	ch. 12,13
10	TH4/27	Group sketches of Pacific Creoles	ch. 14, 15
11 (WK 6)	T5/2	Hour 1: Finish group sketches Hour 2: Video, “The Language You Cry In”	16, 17
12	Th5/4	Finish sketches Guest presentation: Sarah and Dan Peplow-Augustine
*IV. Grammatical Features (Arends, Part IV):*
13 (WK 7)	T5/9	Syntax: TMA particles and auxiliaries	ch. 20
14	TH5/11	Noun Phrases	ch. 21
15 (WK 8)	T5/16	Serial Verbs Fronting	ch. 23, ch. 24
16	TH5/18	Phonetics and Phonology: Vowel phenomena	Holm, ch. 4, pp. 105-125
17 (WK 9)	T5/23	Consonantal phenomena Suprasegmentals	Holm, ch. 4, pp. 125-136; Holm, ch. 4, pp. 137-143
*V. Theories of Genesis (Arends, Part II):*
18	TH5/25	Theories focusing on European input	ch. 8
19 (WK 10)	T5/30	Theories focusing on African- and non-European input Gradualist Approaches --progress reports on data collection project--	ch. 9, ch. 10
20	TH6/1	Universalist approaches; are creoles “special”?	ch. 11 (DeGraff, ch 1)

(Final Exam)	M6/5	portfolios due

Library Laboratory

There are numerous resources available to researchers working on the linguistics of creole and pidgin languages. Many of them may be found only after some hunting, others are as easy as using Google. Not all sources are particularly helpful for linguists. The goal of this lab is to provide you with some resources for “hunting down” information on these types of languages so that you can find relevant, accurate, USEFUL, information on the language you eventually adopt. For this lab, look for the following, and list what you find on this sheet. Links to useful websites (especially those containing soundfiles) will be listed on the course website.

A. WEB

1. How many Creole languages are listed under the “creole family tree” link at www.Ethnologue.com?

2. List three different languages that are listed among the inventory of Creoles in this list:

Language Name	Country in which language is spoken	Type of creole (e.g., English-based; Afrikaans-based, etc.)

3. List two creoles that have “given birth” to other creoles:

4. How many resources do you turn up in a Google search on “Pidgin language soundfiles”? _____

Follow a couple of these links, and list below ones that you think are useful for scholarly work, and a couple that you think are not going to be useful, and write in a sentence or two for each link, why they are not useful.

Likely to be Useful

Not likely to be useful:

B. Library Stacks

1. Does the UW library system have any GRAMMARS of creole languages? If so, list as many as you can find below (upto 10). GO TO THE STACKS and look at them. Don’t just write down the title and author from the online catalog. To be a good grammar, the work should describe the phonology, syntax, lexicon and sociolinguistic setting of formation. For each one you list, check each element the work contains.

GRAMMAR #1:

	( ).
Author	Year	Title	City/	Publisher