The predicate marker li in Mauritian Creole

Guillemin, Diana (2007). The predicate marker li in Mauritian Creole. In: Ilana Mushin and Mary Laughren, Selected Papers from the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Australian Linguistic Society. Annual Meeting of the Australian Linguistic Society, Brisbane, Qld, Australia, (1-22). 7-9 July, 2006.

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Author Guillemin, Diana
Title of paper The predicate marker li in Mauritian Creole
Formatted title The predicate marker li in Mauritian Creole
Conference Paper Type Fully Published Paper
Conference name Annual Meeting of the Australian Linguistic Society
Conference location Brisbane, Qld, Australia
Conference dates 7-9 July, 2006
Proceedings title Selected Papers from the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Australian Linguistic Society
Editor Ilana Mushin
Mary Laughren
Place published St Lucia, Qld, Australia
Publisher School of English, Media Studies & Art History, University of Queensland
Publication date 2007
ISBN 9780980281514
Start page 1
End page 22
Total pages 22
Collection year 2008
Language eng
Abstract/Summary There is a morpheme 'li' in Mauritian Creole (MC), which is homophonous with the 3sg pronoun, and which, in the early creole, occurs frequently between the subject and the predicate in affirmative, present tense clauses. I propose that that 'li' may have originated as a resumptive pronoun, co-referential with the subject, but following the grammaticalization of new determiner elements to mark the semantic contrasts of [±definite] and singular vs. plural, 'li' has now grammaticalized into a predicate marker. Its presence is sensitive to both the nature of the predicate, and to the definiteness and specificity features of the subject NP. My analysis is within the framework of Truth Conditional Semantics, where indefinite NPs are analyzed as variables that get introduced into the discourse, and must be bound by an operator to yield a closed proposition, with a truth value. Drawing on a comparison with a cognative morpheme 'i' in Seychellois Creole, I claim that its path to grammaticalization is linked to that of the specificity marking 'la'.
Subjects 380207 Linguistic Structures (incl. Grammar, Phonology, Lexicon, Semantics)
E1
380200 Linguistics
380206 Language in Time and Space (incl. Historical Linguistics, Dialectology)
751002 Languages and literacy
751005 Communication across languages and cultures
2004 Linguistics
Keyword Defiiniteness
Determiner
Grammaticalization
Indefinite
Mauritian Creole
Predicate
Quanitification
Referentiality
Semantics
Seychellois Creole
Specificity
Creole languages
Q-Index Code E1
 
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Created: Wed, 21 Mar 2007, 09:43:56 EST by Ilana Mushin on behalf of School of English, Media Studies and Art History  -  Detailed History