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8 - Missing Subjects in Creole Acquisition: Insights from Jamaican and Morisyen

from Part II - The Acquisition of Syntax

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2025

By
Tamirand Nnena De Lisser  and
Stephanie Durrleman
Edited by
Dany Adone  and
Astrid Gabel
Dany Adone
Affiliation:
Universität zu Köln
Astrid Gabel
Affiliation:
Universität zu Köln
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Summary

De Lisser and Durrleman’s second chapter explores the syntax of missing subjects in the acquisition of creole languages by children. They focus on two Creoles – Jamaican, a non-null subject language, and Morisyen, a language which allows null subjects in certain contexts. The results of both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses reveal striking similarities in the L1 acquisition of subjects in both Jamaican and Morisyen. Both languages start out with a grammar displaying predominantly target-inconsistent missing subjects, which later shifts to a grammar involving an overwhelming number of overt subjects. This development of subjects in the grammar of Creole-speaking children can be accounted for by the modified version of the Truncation approach in terms of the Spell-out mechanism (De Lisser et al., 2016). The initial structure reflects Universal Grammar, a system providing the option of truncation, and which gives rise to subject drop.

Keywords

acquisition of Creole languagesJamaican CreoleMauritian Creolemissing subjectstruncation approachUniversal Grammar
Type
Chapter
Information
The Evolution, Acquisition and Development of Syntax
Insights from Creole Languages and Beyond
 , pp. 137 - 153
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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