Aboh The Emergence of Hybrid Grammars

Language Contact and Change
Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-1-316-30811-0
Verlag: Cambridge University Press
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 0 Seiten

Reihe: Cambridge Approaches to Language Contact

Children are extremely gifted in acquiring their native languages, but languages nevertheless change over time. Why does this paradox exist? In this study of creole languages, Enoch Aboh addresses this question, arguing that language acquisition requires contact between different linguistic sub-systems that feed into the hybrid grammars that learners develop. There is no qualitative difference between a child learning their language in a multilingual environment and a child raised in a monolingual environment. In both situations, children learn to master multiple linguistic sub-systems that are in contact and may be combined to produce new variants. These new variants are part of the inputs for subsequent learners. Contributing to the debate on language acquisition and change, Aboh shows that language learning is always imperfect: learners' motivation is not to replicate the target language faithfully but to develop a system close enough to the target that guarantees successful communication and group membership.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Aboh, Enoch Oladé

Aboh, Enoch Olade

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Grammatik, Syntax, Morphologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Soziolinguistik
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Spracherwerb, Sprachentwicklung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword Salikoko S. Mufwene; 1. Introduction; 2. The agents of creole formation: geopolitics and cultural aspects of the Slave Coast; 3. The emergence of creoles: a review of some current hypotheses; 4. Competition and selection; 5. The role of vulnerable interfaces in language change: the case of the D-system; 6. The emergence of the clause left periphery; 7. The emergence of serial verb constructions; 8. Conclusions: some final remarks on hybrid grammars, the creole prototype, and language acquisition and change.

Über Autor(innen)

Aboh, Enoch Oladé
Enoch O. Aboh is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam. His publications include The Morphosyntax of Complement-head Sequences (2004). In 2012 he was awarded the renowned one-year NIAS fellowship, and in 2003 he obtained the prestigious Dutch Science Foundation (NWO) five-year vidi grant to study the relation between information structure and syntax.