It is hypothesized that creole languages are largely invented by children and show fundamental similarities, which derive from a biological program for language. The structures of Hawaiian Pidgin and Hawaiian Creole are contrasted, and evidence is provided to show that the latter derived from the former in a single generation. A realistic model of the processes of Creole formation shows how several specific historical and demographic factors interacted to restrict, in varying degrees, the access of pidgin speakers to the dominant language, and hence the nature of input to the children of those speakers. It is shown that the resulting similarities of Creole languages derive from a single grammar with a restricted list of categories and operations. However, grammars of individual Creoles will differ from this grammar to a varying extent: The degree of difference will correlate very closely with the quantity of dominant-language input, which in turn is controlled by extralinguistic factors. Alternative explanations of the above phenomena are surveyed, in particular, substratum theory and monogenesis: Both are found inadequate to account for the facts. Primary acquisition is examined in light of the general hypothesis, and it is suggested that the bioprogram provides a skeletal model of language which the child can then readily convert into the target language. Cases of systematic error and precocious learning provide indirect support for the hypothesis. Some conjectures are made concerning the evolutionary origins of the bioprogram and what study of Creoles and related topics might reveal about language origins.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0140525X00044149

The language bioprogram hypothesis.

Since the 1970s, serial verb constructions (SVCs) have been discussed widely in African, Oceanic and many other languages throughout the world. This article gives an overview of the most important generalizations about SVCs that have been proposed and that do seem to hold if a sufficiently restrictive definition of the concept is adopted. The main problem with the earlier comparative literature is that the notion of an SVC has not been delimited clearly, and/or has been formulated in much too wide terms. As a result, some linguists have despaired of finding a coherent cross-linguistic concept of SVC. For example, one scholar asked 'Are there any universal defining properties of serial verb constructions? Probably not . . .'. These problems can be seen as a result of the confusion between comparative concepts and natural kinds: Serial verb constructions have (most often implicitly) been regarded as natural kinds (universal categories), so that phenomena in additional languages were regarded as SVCs even when they had somewhat different properties. This procedure inevitably leads to a fuzzy and very broad understanding of the concept, with a prototype (or 'canonical') structure that does not allow falsifiable claims. Here I propose a narrow definition of SVC and formulate 10 universals that are apparently true of all serial verb constructions in this narrow sense. The claim that these are universally true of (narrowly defined) serial verb constructions is based on a thorough reading of the comparative and theoretical literature, not on a systematic sample of language- the latter would not have been practical, because SVCs are rarely described in sufficient detail in descriptive grammars. No attempt is made at explaining these generalizations in the present article, but I claim that we finally have a good idea of what it is that needs to be explained in a general way.

/pdf/the-serial-verb-construction-comparative-concept-and-cross-1ie0jwnfi1.pdf

The Serial Verb Construction: Comparative Concept and Cross-linguistic Generalizations

In this study of resultative V-V compounds in Chinese, it is shown that only certain theta-grid patterns are allowed. The restrictions on theta assignment are shown to follow automatically from standard Case theory and three other independently motivated assumptions of current Government-Binding Theory: theta-identification (Higginbotham 1985), a structured theta-grid (Grimshaw 1989) and head-feature percolation. Given the assumption that theta roles are assigned hierarchically, these theoretical devices interact so as to allow all well-formed V-V compounds while excluding all impossible compounds.

On V-V compounds in Chinese

Strict head-final surface order derives from underlying left-headedness in Ijo, a Niger-Congo language of Nigeria. A word order anomaly in Ijo SERIAL VERB CONSTRUCTIONS (SVCs) strongly suggests this, and left-to-right asymmetric c-command among internal arguments of SVCs confirms it. The anomaly is universal among surface right-headed languages with SVCs, indicating that deep left-headedness is universal, as antisymmetry theory predicts (Kayne 1994). Assuming complements are in Specs, and that a light verb v selects every VP (Chomsky 1999), I derive VOVO from OVOV by two instances of V-to-v movement. I argue for a nonuniform approach to SVCs, involving relations of both raising (Campbell 1989) and control (Collins 1997). Other aspects of SVC word order are predictable from a universal thematic hierarchy nontheme > theme, and short scrambling (Takano 1998).

Antisymmetry and Word Order in Serial Constructions

1 THE PROBLEM Resultative compounds may be formed productively in Chinese, with the first verbal morpheme of the compound indicating the causal activity and the second one indicating the result In this paper these two verbal morphemes will be referred to as Vcaus and Vres, respectively Such compounds systematically allow multiple interpretations:'

Structural Head and Aspectuality.

/pdf/serial-verbs-in-the-creole-languages-u0uejq7mzz.pdf

Serial Verbs in the Creole Languages

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Serial Verbs in the Creole Languages