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The Afro-Hispanic Languages of the Americas (AHLAs) present a number of grammatical similarities that have traditionally been ascribed to a previous creole stage. Approaching creole studies from contrasting standpoints, this groundbreaking book provides a new account of these phenomena. How did these features come about? What linguistic mechanisms can account for their parallel existence in several contact varieties? How can we formalize such mechanisms within a comprehensive theoretical framework? How can these new datasets help us test and refine current formal theories, which have primarily been based on standardized language data? In addressing these important questions, this book not only casts new light on the nature of the AHLAs, it also provides new theoretical and methodological perspectives for a more integrated approach to the study of contact-driven restructuring across language interfaces and linguistic domains.
List of contents
1. Questioning a Long-Lasting Assumption in the Field; 2. The African Diaspora to the Andes and its Linguistic Consequences; 3. Reconciling Formalism and Language Variation; 4. Variable Phi-Agreement across the Determiner Phrase; 5. Partial Pro-Drop Phenomena; 6. Early-Peak Alignment and Duplication of Boundary Tone Configurations; 7. Final Considerations; References; Index.
About the author
Sandro Sessarego is Associate Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Texas at Austin and a member of the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice. He works primarily in the fields of contact linguistics, sociolinguistics, syntax and human rights. He has published a number of books on law and linguistics; his most recent one is Language Contact and the Making of an Afro-Hispanic Vernacular (2019, Cambridge).
Summary
Approaching creole studies from contrasting standpoints, this pioneering study casts new light on the nature of the Afro-Hispanic Languages of the Americas. It provides original theoretical and methodological perspectives for a more integrated approach to the study of contact-driven restructuring across language interfaces and linguistic domains.
