A morphosyntactic analysis of Surinamese Dutch as spoken by the Creole population of Paramaribo, Suriname.
Item
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Title
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A morphosyntactic analysis of Surinamese Dutch as spoken by the Creole population of Paramaribo, Suriname.
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Identifier
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AAI9924803
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identifier
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9924803
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Creator
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de Kleine, Christina Mary.
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Contributor
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Adviser: William A. Stewart
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Date
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1999
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Language, Linguistics
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Abstract
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While several of the languages spoken in Suriname have received a great amount of interest in the literature, particularly some of the creole languages, remarkably little research has been done on Suriname's standard language, Dutch, the general assumption being that throughout its history, Surinamese Dutch (SD) has remained relatively similar to European Dutch (ED). The present study proves this assumption false, by providing an in-depth analysis of the morphosyntactic features that distinguish SD from ED, focusing on the VP, the NP, and clause structure. The analysis is based on data collected by local Surinamese, and consists of recorded conversations with twenty-two informants. All informants belonged to the Creoles, an ethnic group of (part) African ancestry, which has the longest tradition of Dutch language use of all Surinamese ethnic groups. It is shown that SD as used by the Creole population is fundamentally different from ED. The most prominent differences that are analyzed relate to the TMA system in SD, which displays radically different tense marking, and includes aspectual values not grammaticalized in ED. Other SD features that are discussed are its distinct pronoun use, which includes pronouns not found in ED, along with different article usage. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that, unlike ED, SD is an SVO language, while distinct word order is additionally analyzed as the result of SD's failure to comply with the verb-second constraint operating in ED. The majority of morphosyntactic features that set SD apart from ED are traced to language contact with Sranan, the creole English used natively by most Creoles; it is argued that these features are the result of linguistic processes of both borrowing and interference. One of the most important findings of this study is that many of the Sranan features that have been transferred into SD relate to grammatical functions rather than structures or forms, resulting in surface structures identical to those encountered in ED, but with different underlying values, which has led to grammatical camouflage. This then (partly) explains why the numerous differences SD and ED display have gone undetected for so long.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
