File(s) not publicly available
Valency and transitivity in contact: evidence from Cameroon Pidgin English
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 22:31 authored by Melanie GreenMelanie Green, Gabriel OzonWe explore valency and transitivity patterns in Cameroon Pidgin English (cpe) from a language contact perspective, with particular focus on (a) lexical and (b) constructional phenomena. With respect to (a), many verbs of English origin surface in cpe with additional senses and valency properties to those they display in the lexifier, illustrating the drive towards polysemy in a language with a relatively small lexicon. We also describe category change, whereby English non-verbal expressions (typically adjectives) emerge as verbs in cpe. In terms of (b), verbs undergo valency changes as a consequence of participation in productive serial verb constructions. These constructions are built around a small set of high-frequency verbs, some of which also occur in the light verb construction, which represents another strategy for the creation of complex predicates. We review the evidence for constructional substrate influence. The data under discussion are drawn from two small corpora of spoken cpe.
History
Publication status
- Published
Journal
Journal of Language ContactISSN
1877-4091Publisher
Brill Academic PublishersExternal DOI
Issue
1Volume
12Page range
52-88Department affiliated with
- English Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes