Creole typology is analytic typology
Pui Yiu Szeto | University of Hong Kong
Jackie Yan-ki Lai | University of Chicago
This paper reviews a number of specific features typical of analytic languages, in an attempt to investigate whether Creole languages can indeed be grouped, at least structurally, with other languages of the analytic (or isolating) type. Based on Sybesma et al. (forthcoming), a study of the nature of analyticity, we select eight features which constitute rather obvious structural parallels between two unrelated groups, namely Sinitic and Kwa. In terms of Creole languages, these eight features can be also clearly located within the APiCS (Michaelis et al. 2013). Contrary to works like Bakker et al. (2011) which argue for the existence of a “Creole Prototype”, our results show that Creole languages do not cluster with each other against other non-Creole languages. Instead, various Creoles clearly owe their grammatical profile to the languages that dominate the typological environment in which they are formed.
Keywords: phylogenetic network, Creole, linguistic complexity, Kwa, Sinitic, analytic language
Published online: 12 June 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/le.17003.sze
https://doi.org/10.1075/le.17003.sze
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