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16 - Decreolization: A Special Case of Language Change?

from Part III - The Development of Syntax

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2025

By
Oliver Mayeux
Edited by
Dany Adone  and
Astrid Gabel
Dany Adone
Affiliation:
Universität zu Köln
Astrid Gabel
Affiliation:
Universität zu Köln
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Summary

Mayeux’s chapter offers a new perspective on the notion of decreolisation which is also a possible path in the life cycle of a Creole language. Creoles in contact with their lexifiers are famously supposed to undergo decreolisation, a process Bickerton termed a “special case” (1980: 113) of contact-induced change. The proposition that Creoles undergo a “special” process of language change has been roundly critiqued by several scholars, not least because decreolisation has seldom been strictly defined or tested with diachronic data. Bickerton, however, sought a rigorous definition for what he critiqued as a “tinkertoy concept” (1980: 111), arguably providing the only specific model of the structural mechanisms supposedly underlying that process. This chapter takes earnestly his suggestion that linguists should strictly define and test the diachronic mechanisms shaping decreolisation. In so doing, this chapter presents evidence against his Creole-specific approach to language change which treats decreolisation as a “special case”.

Keywords

decreolizationlanguage changelanguage contactLouisiana Creoleuniversal processes of change
Type
Chapter
Information
The Evolution, Acquisition and Development of Syntax
Insights from Creole Languages and Beyond
 , pp. 299 - 316
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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