Alain Kihm

List of John Benjamins publications for which Alain Kihm plays a role.

Journal

Title

Subjects Contact Linguistics | Creole studies | Romance linguistics | Syntax
Unlike its Portuguese source, Guinea-Bissau Kriyol is a strict negative concord (NC) language, meaning that everything that can be negative in a negative sentence must be negative: cf. Ningin ka bindi nada {nobody neg sell nothing} ‘Nobody sold anything’. Portuguese, in contrast, is a partial NC… read more
Língua de Preto ‘language of the Blacks’ (LdP) is the conventional name for the basic variety of Portuguese spoken by the West African slaves deported to Portugal from the end of the 15th century onwards, who formed an important and visible minority within the Portuguese population until the… read more
The present paper takes the view that categorial flexibility (CF, also called polycategoriality), i.e. having the “same” items function both as nouns and verbs, is not a possible substantial property of lexemes. Given the semantic quirks that often characterize such alternative uses (e.g. a tree vs. read more
Kihm, Alain 2014 On templatesThe Form of Structure, the Structure of Form: Essays in honor of Jean Lowenstamm, Bendjaballah, Sabrina, Noam Faust, Mohamed Lahrouchi and Nicola Lampitelli (eds.), pp. 235–252 | Article
Severe limitations apply to the sound shape of roots and stems, yielding ‘templates’ (in one sense of the term). Templaticity is a property of human language. Two kinds, default and nondefault, ought to be distinguished, however. Default templaticity amounts to keeping the bulk and phonetic… read more
Kihm, Alain 2013 Pidgin-creoles as a scattered sprachbund: Comparing Kriyol and NubiCreole Languages and Linguistic Typology, Bhatt, Parth and Tonjes Veenstra (eds.), pp. 95–140 | Article
That creole languages resemble each other beyond the diversity of their lexifiers and formative environments is a fact. Similarity should not be overstated, however, as creole languages also differ from each other in important ways. Hence the fundamental issues of creole studies: why are Creoles… read more
Língua de Preto falar Guiné In the first part of the study (sections 1–4), we substantiate our claim that such literary representations are indeed reliable renditions of the linguistic medium African slaves in Portugal actually used in their interactions with the white population and… read more
Kihm, Alain 2011 Pidgin-creoles as a scattered sprachbund: Comparing Kriyol and NubiCreoles and Typology, Bhatt, Parth and Tonjes Veenstra (eds.), pp. 43–88 | Article
That creole languages resemble each other beyond the diversity of their lexifiers and formative environments is a fact. Similarity should not be overstated, however, as creole languages also differ from each other in important ways. Hence the fundamental issues of creole studies: why are Creoles… read more
Kriyol is a Portuguese-related creole language spoken in Guinea-Bissau (former Portuguese Guinea) and Senegalese Casamance. Besides being the primary language of an important community, it also serves as a lingua franca in a multilingual country where Portuguese, although being the official… read more
Kihm, Alain 2007 5. On the interpretation of bare noun phrases in Guinea-Bissau Portuguese Creole (Kriyol)Noun Phrases in Creole Languages: A multi-faceted approach, Baptista, Marlyse and Jacqueline Guéron (eds.), pp. 145–169 | Chapter
Guinea-Bissau Portuguese Creole or Kriyol is one of those languages where bare nouns have free access to syntax. Bare nouns are given a restrictive definition: only nouns appearing in their root form, i.e. not marked for number, are considered bare. Kriyol is thus different from Portuguese or… read more
Kihm, Alain 2000 Wolof Genitive Constructions and the Construct StateResearch in Afroasiatic Grammar: Papers from the Third conference on Afroasiatic Languages, Sophia Antipolis, 1996, Lecarme, Jacqueline, Jean Lowenstamm and Ur Shlonsky (eds.), pp. 151–181 | Article
Kihm, Alain 2000 Are Creole Languages “Perfect” Languages?Language Change and Language Contact in Pidgins and Creoles, McWhorter, John H. (ed.), pp. 163–200 | Article
Kihm, Alain 1999 Focus in Wolof: A Study of What Morphology May Do to SyntaxThe Grammar of Focus, Rebuschi, Georges and Laurice Tuller (eds.), pp. 245–274 | Article
According to the Language Bioprogram Hypothesis, the core grammars of all "real" creoles should be alike to a significant degree. Real creoles are then defined as those creoles that were born on plantations, as opposed to those that appeared in so-called fort situations, that is, around trading… read more
So-called "pseudo-complementizers," i.e., complementizers that are homophonous with a verb meaning 'say', are a widespread feature among creole (and some noncreole) languages. Kriyol kuma belongs to this category. The homophony thesis is criticized, and it is argued that kuma is a verb in all of… read more