[GRGC] William Kezerian (U. Syracuse)

retour à la page du Séminaire Grammaires créoles

William Kezerian (U. Syracuse)

travail joint avec Vasily Tselioudis, Béatrice Jeannot-Fourcaud, Isabelle Barrière & Renauld Govain 

(Columbia University, University of the Antilles,  Saint Elizabeth University & State University of Haiti) )

Testing Clause Boundaries: Focus and Complementation in Guadeloupean Creole 

(pdf of abstract here)

Guadeloupean Creole is spoken in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe, which has been historically minoritized and whose general linguistic descriptions (Bérnabe 1983, Damoiseau 2012, and Bonan 2013) lack in-depth empirical data on the behavior of its complementation structures. This study investigated the syntax of Guadeloupean Creole (GC) complementation; it involved the collection of experimental data on (i) the inclusion of the complementizer kè, and (ii) whether speakers allow focusing on noun phrases and verbs that are situated within a complement clause, as well as how two these phenomena interact. Focus in this language is notable in that it requires reduplication and fronting of focus-marked verbs, however, only fronting when focusing nouns (Byrne et al., 1993). Thus, one of the aims of this study is to examine factors that prohibit or allow the movement of a focused noun or verb across a complementizer phrase, which would appear to contrast with the notion that movement of a phrase to outside of a CP boundary is illicit (Haegeman 1991, Büring 2009). 
   We administered randomized Guadeloupean Creole (GC) acceptability judgment tasks to 34 bilingual native speakers of GC and French using PsychoPy2024.1.5, collecting 2,230 data points between the two experiments. In the first experiment, participants listened to audio prompts and chose between sentences with and without the complementizer included. Our second experiment tasked participants to listen to GC audio prompts with and without contrastive focus, after which they ranked the focus-marked sentence on a three-point acceptability scale. We also collected ethnographic interviews and oral narratives elicited with storyboards in both languages to compare our acceptability judgment tasks against natural usage, and to gather data on educational background, demographics, and other sociolinguistic factors that might affect focus-marking and complementizer usage. 
   Our results reveal a preference for focusing elements external to a CP, though a variety of factors contribute to the acceptability of focusing on CP-internal elements. These include the inclusion of the focus-marking morpheme “sé”, how agentive the noun is, the use of complementizers (Dixon 2006, Lohninger et al., 2020, and Tramutoli 2021), and whether the focused element moves to front the internal CP or the matrix CP. These findings suggest that focus movement of a noun or verb from inside a CP is indeed licit in Guadeloupean Creole, but relies on particular morphemes and the aligning of certain syntactic conditions to be acceptable. These findings lack any previous linguistic documentation in Guadeloupean Creole. Our research suggests that this particular Antillean Creole language layers multiple mechanisms of focus in a given phrase, and may have more transparent CP boundaries for focus movements when compared to traditional frameworks. We also found that there exists a contrast based on age in inclusion of the complementizer in complementation structures. 
   Our findings expand the descriptive grammar of GC and offer a detailed empirical basis for theorizing focus typology, movement barriers, and complementation in Creole languages. We aim not only to expand the descriptive grammar of GC, but to situate these novel findings within modern understandings of movement barriers, focus typology, the role of complementation, and the syntactic behavior of Antillean Creole syntactic phrases. 
Appendix 
NP Focus on a CP-internal noun 
1. a. Without focus 
Sara ka kwè frè a-y ké gannyé kous-la. 
Sara PROG believe brother DET-3SG FUT win race-DET 
"Sara believes her brother will win the race." 
b. With focus movement 
(Sé) kous-la Sara ka kwè frè a-y ké gannyé. 
FOC race-DET Sara PROG believe brother DET-3SG FUT win 
"Sara believes her brother will win the race." 
VP focus on a CP-internal verb 
2. a. Without focus 
David ka anonsé pawk-la ouvè jòdla. 
David PROG announce park-DET open today 
"David is announcing that the park opens today." 
b. With focus on the CP-internal verb 
(Sé) ouvè David ka anonsé pawk-la ouvè jòdla. 
FOC open David PROG announce park-DET open today 
"David is announcing that the park opens today." 
All audio stimuli are randomized in whether they use a female or male voice, and also whether (5) or (6) 
is played first. After hearing both audios, the participant chooses which they prefer. 
3. Audio played using two distinct voices to simulate quotation. 
Marine di dousouman: “an ay an boutik-la” 
Marine say.PFV quietly I go.PFV to store-DET 
“Marine said quietly, ‘I went to the store’.” 
4. First audio option, not using complementizer kè 
Marine di dousouman i ay an boutik-la. 
Marine say.PFV quietly she go.PFV to store-DET 
“Marine said quietly she went to the store.” 
5. Second audio option, using complementizer kè 
Marine di dousouman kè i ay an boutik-la. 
Marine say.PFV quietly that she go.PFV to store-DET 
“Marine said quietly that she went to the store.” 
 

References 
Bernabé, Jean (1983), Fondal-natal: Grammaire basilectale approchée des créoles guadeloupéen et martiniquais, vol. 1–3, Paris: L’Harmattan. 
Bonan, Céline (2013), The core grammar of Guadeloupean Creole: A descriptive and comparative approach, Master’s thesis, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia. 
Büring, Daniel (2009), Towards a typology of focus realization, in M. Zimmermann & C. Féry (eds), Information Structure: Theoretical, Typological, and Experimental Perspectives, Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Online edition, Oxford Academic, 1 Feb. 2010] 
Byrne, Francis, & Winford, Donald (eds) (1993), Focus and Grammatical Relations in Creole Languages, vol. 12, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.12 
Damoiseau, Robert (2012), Syntaxe créole comparée. Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyane, Haïti, Paris: Karthala. 
Dixon, R. M. W., & Aikhenvald, A. Y. (eds) (2006), Complementation: A Cross-Linguistic Typology, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
Haegeman, Liliane (1991), Introduction to Government and Binding Theory, First edition, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. 
Hazaël-Massieux, Marie-Christine (1996), Du français, du créole et de quelques situations plurilingues: Données linguistiques et sociolinguistiques, Paris: Éditions Publibook. 
Koopman, Hilda (1984), The Syntax of Verbs, New York: Academic Press. 
Lohninger, Maximilian, & Wurmbrand, Susi (2020), Typology of complement clauses, Linguistic Inquiry 51(2), 353–398. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00353 
Tramutoli, Laura (2021), ‘Fact type’ complementizer in Guadeloupean Creole, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 36(2), 336–361. https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.00078.tra 
Vaillant, Pascal (2009), Induction of French structures into Creole grammar, paper presented at the 8th Creolistics Workshop, Giessen (Germany), April 2009.