Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC840302); site boring.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ucbvax!ucdavis!lll-crg!gymble!umcp-cs!seismo!mcvax!boring!lambert From: lambert@boring.UUCP (Lambert Meertens) Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Re: Spoken English as an "Easy Language" Message-ID: <6715@boring.UUCP> Date: Wed, 1-Jan-86 14:10:47 EST Article-I.D.: boring.6715 Posted: Wed Jan 1 14:10:47 1986 Date-Received: Thu, 2-Jan-86 05:04:24 EST Organization: CWI, Amsterdam Lines: 93 Summary: Creoles as easy languages Apparently-To: rnews@mcvax Expires: References: <1791@uwmacc.UUCP> <839@h-sc1.UUCP> <1809@uwmacc.UUCP> <842@h-sc1.UUCP> <418@bcsaic.UUCP> <718@spar.UUCP> <2544@sdcrdcf.UUCP> Sender: lambert@boring.UUCP (Lambert Meertens) Reply-To: lambert@boring.UUCP (Lambert Meertens) Followup-To: Distribution: Organization: Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica, Amsterdam Keywords: > As I undertand it, there IS a pattern that all creole languages (languages > formed by a cross between two different languages) tend to fall into. You > could probably claim this pattern was objectively easy for human beings. > I forget what the creole pattern is though. Perhaps someone out there > remembers. The basic pattern of a creole sentence is SUBJECT + [ANT] + [IRR] + [DUR] + VERB in which there are three optional markers (particles), making eight combinations. Although the particles (actual words) used as markers are different for all creoles, the pattern is the same across languages. As a first approximation, think of ANT (for anterior tense) as marking the past. The marker IRR (for irreal mode) is roughly the future. Finally, DUR (for durative, also known as nonpunctual) indicates ongoing activity and is often not marked in English or corresponds to "to be ...ing"; the unmarked version is usually marked in English with the perfect tense. In Sranan Tongo (spoken in Suriname): MI WROKO I have worked MI E WROKO I am working MI SA WROKO I will work (or: I would work, if ...) MI SA E WROKO I will be working (or: I would ...) MI BEN WROKO I had worked MI BEN E WROKO I was (or: had been) working MI BEN SA WROKO I would have worked MI BEN SA E WROKO I would have been working Some verbs do double duty through the use of the DUR marker where English needs two verbs: MI WERI KROSI I wear clothes MI E WERI KROSI I don clothes MI SIDON I sit (am seated) MI E SIDON I sit down (am seating myself) A complication is that some verbs are durative in meaning by themselves (also known as stative) and do not admit of the DUR marker. So MI LOBI I love (not: have loved) MI BEN LOBI I loved (or: have loved) Adjectives can be used as verbs: MI BIGI I am big It would seem that as a verb this is durative, but MI E BIGI I am getting big (One would expect *MI E LOBI to mean: I am falling in love, but not so; it is ungrammatical.) Finally, where English uses "to be" as copula for a predicate that is a noun phrase, Sranan uses a copula particle (A) that I would not consider a verb: POTI A NO SJEN Poverty is no shame > In any case, the logically unnecessary features Ellis mentions > (gender, etc.) are part of the necessary redundancy of a spoken language. > English's pattern of adding -s to the third person singular is a redundant > pattern too. One of my Linguistics professors claimed that ALL languages > ended up having the same degree of redundancy; apparently humans need it > to decode voice input. Speakers of creoles manage without such redundant features. All words are indeclinable; they do not get changed by their syntactic position or by tense, number, gender, or anything else. Also, the word order is invariable. In Sranan: WAN MAN E TAKI One man is talking DRI MAN E TAKI Three men are talking A PASA ESREDE It happened yesterday FA A PASA? How did it happen? -- Lambert Meertens ...!{seismo,okstate,garfield,decvax,philabs}!lambert@mcvax.UUCP CWI (Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science), Amsterdam