Chapter 8. A new analysis of the Papiamentu clause structure

This chapter reconsiders the complementizer and the tense-mood-aspect systems of the Papiamentu clause within the framework of the split CP (Rizzi 1997) and the split INFL (Pollock 1989) hypotheses, providing new evidence for the left periphery heads. It provides a detailed account of the Papiamentu morphemes involved that unifies syntactic and interpretive properties. Of particular interest is the proposal that di – which introduces infinitives – and lo – traditionally considered a future marker – both head FinP, and that pa, when functioning as a marker of necessity, heads MoodP. Contra certain claims in the literature, this chapter argues that the order of preverbal material is not different from that of other Caribbean creoles.