Variation in past tense marking in Bequia creole : apparent time change and dialect levelling
Research in the Caribbean often links global phenomena (e.g. increased tourism) to changes in lifestyles and mindsets taking place in this part of the world (Curtis, 2009). I examine the direction, intensity, and motivations of language changes among adolescents in three communities in Bequia (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) considering the socio-economic transformations affecting the island. Data for this study was obtained using a combination of sociolinguistic interviews and conversations between Bequia adolescents and their grandparents recorded in the course of several fieldwork trips. Three villages in Bequia were considered, Hamilton, Paget Farm and Mount Pleasant, characterised by different patterns of settlement and socioeconomic development. I investigate variation between: (i) creole verb stems vs. Standard English verb inflections (e.g. I go yesterday vs. I went yesterday), and (ii) verb stems and verb inflections vs. creole preverbal markers (e.g. I bin play yesterday). A variety of grammatical, discoursespecific, functional, and cognitive constraints are tested to determine which factors condition the variable patterns across different communities and age groups, and how linguistically similar/different
Daleszynska, Agata
sociolinguistics ; language change ; Caribbean ; creoles ; identity ; globalisation
Variation in past tense marking in Bequia creole : apparent time change and dialect levelling. Research in the Caribbean often links global phenomena (e.g. increased tourism) to changes in lifestyles and mindsets taking place in this part of the world (Curtis, 2009). I examine the direction, intensity, and motivations of language changes among adolescents in three communities in Bequia (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) considering the socio-economic transformations affecting the island. Data for this study was obtained using a combination of sociolinguistic interviews and conversations between Bequia adolescents and their grandparents recorded in the course of several fieldwork trips. Three villages in Bequia were considered, Hamilton, Paget Farm and Mount Pleasant, characterised by different patterns of settlement and socioeconomic development. I investigate variation between: (i) creole verb stems vs. Standard English verb inflections (e.g. I go yesterday vs. I went yesterday), and (ii) verb stems and verb inflections vs. creole preverbal markers (e.g. I bin play yesterday). A variety of grammatical, discoursespecific, functional, and cognitive constraints are tested to determine which factors condition the variable patterns across different communities and age groups, and how linguistically similar/different
variation past_tense mark creole apparent time change dialect levelling caribbean often link global phenomenon increased tourism change lifestyles mindset take_place part world examine direction intensity motivation language_change among adolescent community consider socio_economic transformation affect island data study obtain use_combination sociolinguistic interview conversation adolescent record course several fieldwork trip village consider farm mount characterise different_pattern settlement socioeconomic development investigate_variation creole verb stem standard_english verb inflection verb stem verb inflection creole preverbal marker play variety grammatical functional cognitive constraint test determine factor condition variable pattern across_different community age_group linguistically similar different