Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-npj9w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-07T23:24:28.863Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Against Creole exceptionalism (redux)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Michel DeGraff
Michel DeGraff*
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
*
Department of Linguistics & Philosophy, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Ave. 32-D808, Cambridge, MA 02139 [degraff@mit.edu]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The primary goal of my Discussion Note ‘Against Creole exceptionalism’ (Language 79.2.391-410, hereafter ACE) was to demystify a variety of past and present beliefs—widespread in and outside academia—according to which Creole languages constitute an exceptional class on phylogenetic and/or typological grounds.

Information

Type
Discussion Notes
Information
Language , Volume 80 , Issue 4 , December 2004 , pp. 834 - 839
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

Heartfelt thanks to Hope Dawson, Brian Joseph, Salikoko Mufwene, and Nuriel Vera-DeGraff. Each in their own way, they went beyond the call of duty in helping me improve this reply, in both contents and style. Nuriel was certainly the most vocal in his feedback to early drafts.

References

Begley, Sharon. 1982. The fossils of language. Newsweek, March 15, 1982, p. 80.Google Scholar
Bickerton, Derek. 1990. Language and species. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bickerton, Derek. 1995. Language and human behavior. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Bickerton, Derek. 1998. Catastrophic evolution: The case for a single step from protolanguage to full human language. Approaches to the evolution of language: Social and cognitive bases, ed. by Hurford, James, Studdert-Kennedy, Michael, and Knight, Chris, 341–58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bickerton, Derek. 1999. How to acquire language without positive evidence: What acquisitionists can learn from Creoles. In DeGraff 1999c, 49–74.Google Scholar
Bickerton, Derek, and Calvin, William. 2000. Lingua ex machina: Reconciling Darwin and Chomsky with the human brain. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
DeGraff, Michel. 1992. Creole grammars and acquisition of syntax: The case of Haitian. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania dissertation.Google Scholar
DeGraff, Michel. 1999a. Creolization, language change and language acquisition: A prolegomenon. In DeGraff 1999c, 1–46.Google Scholar
DeGraff, Michel. 1999b. Creolization, language change and language acquisition: An epilogue. In DeGraff 1999c, 473–543.Google Scholar
DeGraff, Michel. 1999c. Language creation and language change: Creolization, diachrony and development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
DeGraff, Michel. 2001a. Morphology in Creole genesis: Linguistic and ideology. Ken Hale: A life in language, ed. by Kenstowicz, Michael, 53–121. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeGraff, Michel. 2001b. On the origin of Creoles: A Cartesian critique of neo-Darwinian linguistics. Linguistic Typology 5.2.213–310.Google Scholar
DeGraff, Michel. 2002. Relexification: A reevaluation. Anthropological Linguistics 44.4.321–414.Google Scholar
DeGraff, Michel. 2004. Word order and morphology in ‘creolization’ and beyond. Handbook of comparative syntax, ed. by Cinque, Guglielmo and Kayne, Richard, 249–312. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
DeGraff, Michel, and Walicek, Don. 2004. Creole exceptionalism and accidents of history: A conversation with Michel DeGraff. Sargasso: A journal of Caribbean literature, language, and culture, to appear. (Special issue: Creolistics and Caribbean languages, ed. by Don E. Walicek.)Google Scholar
Fattier, Dominique. 1998. Contribution l’étude de la genèse d'un Créole: L'Atlas linguistique d'Haïti, cartes et commentaires. Aix: Université de Provence dissertation. [Distributed by Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, Villeneuve dAscq, France.]Google Scholar
Meijer, Gus, and Muysken, Pieter. 1977. On the beginnings of pidgin and creole studies: Schuchardt and Hesseling. Pidgin and creole linguistics, ed. by Valdman, Albert, 21–45. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Mühleisen, Susanne. 2002. Creole discourse: Exploring prestige formation and change across Caribbean English-lexicon Creoles. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko. 2004. Multilingualism in linguistic history: Creolization and indigenization. The handbook of bilingualism, ed. by Bhatia, Tej and Ritchie, William, 460–88. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Plag, Ingo. 2003a. Introduction. In Plag 2003b, ix–xi.Google Scholar
Plag, Ingo (ed.) 2003b. Phonology and morphology of Creole languages. Tübingen: Nietn eyer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Sarah Julianne. 1998. The role of diffusion in the genesis of Hawaiian Creole. Language 74.1.1–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Sarah Julianne. 1999. Grammatical development in Hawaiian Creole and the role of substrate languages. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, Los Angeles, CA, January 1999.Google Scholar
Roberts, Sarah Julianne. 2000. Nativization and the genesis of Hawaiian Creole. Language change and language contact in pidgins and creoles, ed. by McWhorter, John, 257–300. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Sarah Julianne. 2002. The role of identity and style in creole development: Evidence from Hawaiian Creole. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, San Francisco, CA, January 2002.Google Scholar