Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-nptnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-12T10:35:16.776Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Serial verb constructions in Kamtok (Cameroon Pidgin English)

Kamtok relies on SVCs to express concepts of location, valency increase, aspect and degree

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2016

Miriam Ayafor
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Kamtok, an English-based expanded pidgin/creole in Cameroon, has many of the grammatical structures of its lexifier language. However, there are certain grammatical structures in this contact language which are not so obvious in its lexifier, though they may exist sparingly in spoken forms of the production of some native speakers. One of these is the serial verb construction (SVC). SVCs are ‘a series of two (or more) verbs [that] have the same subject and are not joined by a conjunction … or a complementiser … as they would be in European languages (Holm, 1988: 183).

Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 49 - 56
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ameka, F. 2001. ‘Multi-verb constructions and grammaticalization in Kwa.’ Paper presented at the Symposium on the Typology of African Languages, May 21–24.Google Scholar
Ayafor, M. 2008. ‘Cameroon Pidgin English (Kamtok): Morphology and syntax.’ In Mesthrie, R. (ed.), Varieties of English: Africa, South and Southeast Asia Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 428–50.Google Scholar
Ayisi, F. & Longinotto, K. (dir.). 2005. Sisters in Law [DVD]. London: Vixen Films.Google Scholar
Bellama, D., Nkwelle, S. & Yudom, J. 1983. An Introduction to Cameroonian Pidgin. 2nd ed.Yaoundé, Peace Corps Cameroon.Google Scholar
Essegbey, J. 2003. ‘Auxiliaries in serialising languages: on COME and GO verbs in Sranan and Ewe.’ Lingua, 114, 473–94.Google Scholar
Faraclas, N. G. 1996. Nigerian Pidgin. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hagemeijer, T. & Ogie, O. 2011. ‘Edo influence on Santome: Evidence from verb serialisation and beyond.’ In Lefebvre, C. (ed.), Creoles, their Substrates, and Language Typology. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 37–60.Google Scholar
Holm, J. 1988. Pidgins and Creoles. Vol. 1: Theory and Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mbangwana, P. & Sala, B. 2009. Cameroon English Morphology and Syntax: Current Trends in Action. Muenchen: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Muysken, P. & Veenstra, T. 1995. Serial verbs. In Arends, J., Muysken, P. & Smith, N. (eds.), Pidgins and Creoles: An Introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 289–302.Google Scholar
Sebba, M. 1987. The Syntax of Serial Verbs: An Investigation into Serialisation in Sranan and Other Languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Bible Society of Cameroon. 2000. GUD NYUS FO OL PIPUL. Yaoundé.Google Scholar
Todd, L. 1982. Cameroon. Heidelberg: Julius Groos Verlag.Google Scholar