Description
Book SynopsisFrench 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
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
