Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-npj9w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-08T13:43:43.971Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Constraining Variation in Decreolization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

William Washabaugh
William Washabaugh*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A replication of D. Bickerton's analysis of fi-tu variation in Caribbean English (1971) indicates that a number of overly-strong hypotheses about variation in decreolization must be modified. Variation in decreolization is not always bidirectional, not completely directed by the pressure to acquire the standard language, and not entirely constrained by deep-structure categories. But this is not to deny that variation is systematic. Rather, it is directed by both social and linguistic pressures, and is constrained not only by purely linguistic factors, but also by lexical categories established by psychological processes.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , June 1977 , pp. 329 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © 1977 by 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

References

Andres, Susan, et al. 1972. Where the rules fail. Mimeo, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Bickerton, D. 1971. Inherent variability and variable rules. Foundations of Language 7. 457–92.Google Scholar
Bickerton, D. 1973. The structure of polylectal grammars. Monograph series on languages and linguistics, Georgetown University, 25. 17–42. Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Bickerton, D. 1975. Dynamics of a creole system. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Bolinger, D. 1972. That's that. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burling, Robbins. 1970. Man's many voices. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Cassidy, F. G., and LePage, R. B. 1967. Dictionary of Jamaican Creole. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, M., and Hsieh, H. 1971. The time variable in phonological change. Journal of Linguistics 7. 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, M., and Wang, W. 1973. Sound change: actuation and implementation. Paper presented at the 1st International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
DeCamp, D. 1971. Toward a generative analysis of a post-creole continuum. Pidginization and creolization of languages, ed. by Hymes, D., 349–70. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Eckman, Fred. 1975. On explaining some typological facts about raising. Paper presented at the LSA Annual Meeting, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Edwards, J., and Rosberg, M. 1976. Conversation in a West-Indian taxi. Language in Society 4. 295–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsieh, H. 1970. The development of middle Chinese entering tone in Pekinese. Berkeley: University of California dissertation.Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. 1972a. Lexical diffusion: evidence from child language acquisition. Glossa 6. 89–104.Google Scholar
Hsieh, H. 1972b. On the bidirectionality of phonological rules. Mimeo.Google Scholar
Jakobovits, L. 1968. Second-language learning and transfer theory: a theoretical assessment. Language Learning 19. 55–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, W. 1972. Language in the inner city: studies in Black English vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Neff, K. 1975. GO in Hawaiian Creole. Paper presented at the International Conference on Pidgins and Creoles, Honolulu.Google Scholar
Nichols, P. 1976. Linguistic change in Gullah. Stanford University dissertation.Google Scholar
Reber, A. 1973. On psycholinguistic paradigms. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 2. 289–319.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenbaum, P. 1967. The grammar of English predicate complement constructions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Washabaugh, W. 1974. Variability in decreolization on Providence Island, Colombia. Detroit: Wayne State University dissertation.Google Scholar
Washabaugh, W. 1975. On the development of complementizers in creolization. Working Papers on Language Universals, Stanford University, 17. 109–40.Google Scholar
Washabaugh, W. 1976a. Horizontal variation in decreolization. Paper presented at Mid-America Linguistics Conference, Minneapolis.Google Scholar
Washabaugh, W. 1976b. Decreolization and second-language acquisition. Paper presented at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Linguistics Symposium.Google Scholar
Wilson, P. 1973. Crab antics. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar