I have compiled the following summary of the standard creole grammar model.
Hopefully it will be of some interest to language constructors.


The creole grammar prototype
----------------------------

Twelve features of creole grammar:

(following Derek Bickerton, Roots of Language (1981).)

1. Movement rules.
Sentence constituents can be focused by moving them to the start of the
sentence and
prefixing the copula.
Example (from Papiamentu CS):
ta mi  brel    bo  por wak
be 1sg glasses 2sg can see
It is my glasses you can see.

2. Articles.
a. Definite article for presupposed-specific NPs.
b. Indefinite article for asserted-specific NPs.
c. Zero-marking for nonspecific NPs.
Examples (from Seychellois CF):
a. mo^ pe aste sa banan
   I am buying the banana.
b. mo^ pe aste e^ banan
   I am buying a banana.
c. fakter i n amen let is?
   Did the postman bring a letter here?

3. Tense-Modality-Aspect (TMA) systems.
Three preverbal free morphemes, cooccuring in the order TMA.
Tense morpheme: [+anterior] with nonstative verbs
                [+past] with stative verbs
Modality morpheme: [+irrealis] fe. conditional, hypothesized and unrealized
events
Aspect morpheme: [+nonpunctual]
Unmarked verb: present statives, past nonstatives.
Example (from Krio CE, Sierra Leone):
a   bin   de  rait
1sg Tense Asp write
I was writing.

4. Realized and unrealized complements.
Realized complements are unmarked, or marked differently to unrealized
complements.
Examples (from Mauritian CF):
li desid al met poso^ lada^    (with 'al')
She decided to put a fish in it.
li ti pe ale pu al bril lakaz sa garso^-la, me lor sime ban dayin fin atake
li    (with 'pu al')
He would have gone to burn the boy's house, but on the way some witches
attacked him.

5. Relativization.
Creoles, unlike pidgins, have relative constructions and relative pronouns.

6. Negation.
Nondefinite subjects and VP constituents are negated in addition to the
verb.
Example (from Guyana CE):
non dag na bait non kyat
No dog bit any cat.

7. Existential and 'have'.
The same form is used for the equivalents of 'there is' and 'have'.
Example (from Haitian CF):
ge^ you fa^m ki ge^ you petit-fi
There is a woman who has a daughter.

8. Copula
Adjectives function as verbs and so don't require a copula.
Example (from Jamaican CE):
di  pikni sik
the child sick
The child is sick.

Otherwise there is a tendency towards semantic transparency, ti. to use
different forms for
the distinct functions of the copula, fe. attributive and locative
functions.

9. Adjectives.
Adjectives function as stative verbs.

10. Questions.
There is no difference between the sentence order of declaratives and
interrogatives.
If a creole has a question particle, it is sentence-final and optional.

11. Question words.
There is a tendency for question words to be bimorphemic.
Examples (from Haitian CF): ki kote' = where
         (from Guyana CE): wa mek = why

12. Passive equivalents.
Passive constructions are rare in creoles.
Where they do exist they are either marginal or recent superstrate
borrowings.
Example (from Jamaican CE):
dem plaan di tree
They planted the tree.
di tree plaan
The tree was planted.



Kordiale, James Chandler
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http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/5037

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