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Article published In:
Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages
Vol. 35:1 (2020) ► pp.1–36

A description of bare noun phrases in Reunion Creole

| Aix-Marseille University, France

This paper discusses the general distribution and interpretation of bare noun phrases (BNPs) in Reunion Creole (RC). To set the required background for this description, it also discusses the count-mass distinction and offers an insight into the determiner system since elements such as prenominal lo and postnominal -la have received rather divergent designations and analyses in the literature. Observations rely on oral data and felicity judgments.

We show that RC BNPs can occupy the same positions as noun phrases (NPs) modified by a determiner and that they can be left-dislocated, clefted and topicalized. We provide evidence that, except for some specific contexts, monosyllabic BNPs are not licensed and that the form lo is mandatory to build a grammatical NP out of nouns formed by a unique light syllable. [1] 1 We also demonstrate that, in these cases, lo is actually a semantically empty element. BNPs are number-neutral; we argue that existential BNPs are pseudo-incorporated in some cases but that they always have weak reference. BNPs can receive generic and kind readings, as well as an existential and a certain definite interpretation: they are weak definites, i.e. they are semantically, never pragmatically definite (following Löbner 1985, 1998, 2011, 2015).

Keywords: Reunion Creole, bare noun phrases, determiners, monosyllabic nouns, clitics, phonological constraints, weak reference, weak definites, semantic definiteness, pragmatic definiteness
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Data
  • 2.The RC determiner system
    • 2.1Number and the count-mass distinction
    • 2.2Determiners
    • 2.3The case of prenominal lo
  • 3.Distribution of BNPs
    • 3.1General distribution
    • 3.2Potential restrictions
    • 3.3Monosyllabic nouns
    • 3.4Correlations with other parts of the system
  • 4.Semantic properties of BNPs
    • 4.1Number
    • 4.2Existential BNPs and weak reference
    • 4.3Weak and strong definites
  • 5.Summary and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 May 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.00046.alb
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