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Defining Creole

2005-02-03 Language Arts & Disciplines
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Release : 2005-02-03
Genre : Language Arts & Disciplines
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 234/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Defining Creole by : John H. McWhorter

Download or read book Defining Creole written by John H. McWhorter. This book was released on 2005-02-03. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A conventional wisdom among creolists is that creole is a sociohistorical term only: that creole languages share a particular history entailing adults rapidly acquiring a language usually under conditions of subordination, but that structurally they are indistinguishable from other languages. The articles by John H. McWhorter collected in this volume demonstrate that this is in fact untrue. Creole languages, while complex and nuanced as all human languages are, are delineable from older languages as the result of their having come into existence only a few centuries ago. Then adults learn a language under untutored conditions, they abbreviate its structure, focusing upon features vital to communication and shaving away most of the features useless to communication that bedevil those acquiring the language non-natively. When they utilize their rendition of the language consistently enough to create a brand-new one, this new creation naturally evinces evidence of its youth: specifically, a much lower degree of the random accretions typical in older languages, which only develop over vast periods of time. The articles constitute a case for this thesis based on both broad, cross-creole ranges of data and focused expositions referring to single creole languages. The book presents a general case for a theory of language contact and creolization in which not only transfer from source languages but also structural reduction plays a central role, based on facts whose marginality of address in creole studies has arisen from issues sociopolitical as well as scientific. For several decades the very definition of the term creole has been elusive even among creole specialists. This book attempts to forge a path beyond the inter- and intra-disciplinary misunderstandings and stalemates that have resulted from this, and to demonstrate the place that creoles might occupy in other linguistic subfields, including typology, language contact, and syntactic theory.

Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages

2000 Language Arts & Disciplines
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Release : 2000
Genre : Language Arts & Disciplines
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 440/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages by : Ingrid Neumann-Holzschuh

Download or read book Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages written by Ingrid Neumann-Holzschuh. This book was released on 2000. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Basic notions in the field of creole studies, including the category of “creole languages” itself, have been questioned in recent years: Can creoles be defined on structural or on purely sociohistorical grounds? Can creolization be understood as a graded process, possibly resulting in different degrees of “radicalness” and intermediate language types (“semi-creoles”)? If so, by which linguistic structures are these characterized, and by which extralinguistic conditions have they been brought about? Which are the linguistic mechanisms underlying processes of restructuring, and how did grammaticalization and reanalysis shape the reorganization of linguistic, specifically morphosyntactic structures commonly called “creolization”? What is the role of language contact, language mixing, substrates and superstrates, or demographic factors in these processes? This volume provides select and revised papers from a 1998 colloquium at the University of Regensburg in which these questions were addressed. 19 contributions by renowned scholars discuss structural, sociohistorical and theoretical aspects, building upon case studies of both Romance-based and English-oriented creoles. This book marks a major step forward in our understanding of the nature of creolization.

White by Definition

1986 Social Science
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Release : 1986
Genre : Social Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis White by Definition by : Virginia R. Domínguez

Download or read book White by Definition written by Virginia R. Domínguez. This book was released on 1986. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An unusual and powerful study."--Eric R. Wolf, Herbert H. Lehman College, CUNY "A profound study of the nebulous Creoles. . . . Domínguez's use of original sources . . . is scholarship at its best. . . . Her study is fascinating, thought-provoking, controversial, and without a doubt, one of the most objective analyses of Creole Louisiana. Her emphasis on social stratification and her excellent integration of ethnic and racial classification of Creoles with legal and social dynamics and individual choice of ethnic identity elucidates strikingly the continuing controversy of who and what is a Louisiana Creole."--Journal of American Ethnic History "Domínguez's most important contribution lies in her conceptualization of the problem of identity. She treats ethnic identity as something that can change over time, warning us against imposing current meanings on the past and requiring us to consider evidence of how terms were actually used in the past. . . . It is hard to imagine a frame of reference more ideally suited to historical analysis."--Louisiana History "A valuable interdisciplinary examination of the processes of racial definition in Louisiana's history. Her study combines the anthropologist's sensitivity to language and self definition within a community with a skillful exploitation of historical sources."--Law and Society "I highly recommend this book to all persons interested in social stratification."--Alvin L. Bertrand, Contemporary Sociology "A vivid and insightful reading of the historical circumstances that have shaped definitions of Creoles within Louisiana law and society."--Journal of Southern History "A provocative, often brilliant book. It offers fresh perspectives on fundamental questions and deserves a wide readership among American social historians."--Journal of American History

White by Definition

1993-12 History
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Release : 1993-12
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 889/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis White by Definition by : Virginia R. Dominguez

Download or read book White by Definition written by Virginia R. Dominguez. This book was released on 1993-12. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A profound study of the nebulous Creoles. . . . Dom nguez's use of original sources . . . is scholarship at its best. . . . Her study is fascinating, thought-provoking, controversial, and without a doubt, one of the most objective analyses of Creole Louisiana. Her emphasis on social stratification and her excellent integration of ethnic and racial classification of Creoles with legal and social dynamics and individual choice of ethnic identity elucidates strikingly the continuing controversy of who and what is a Louisiana Creole."--Journal of American Ethnic History "Dom nguez's most important contribution lies in her conceptualization of the problem of identity. She treats ethnic identity as something that can change over time, warning us against imposing current meanings on the past and requiring us to consider evidence of how terms were actually used in the past. . . . It is hard to imagine a frame of reference more ideally suited to historical analysis."--Louisiana History "A valuable interdisciplinary examination of the processes of racial definition in Louisiana's history. Her study combines the anthropologist's sensitivity to language and self definition within a community with a skillful exploitation of historical sources."--Law and Society "I highly recommend this book to all persons interested in social stratification."--Alvin L. Bertrand, Contemporary Sociology "A vivid and insightful reading of the historical circumstances that have shaped definitions of Creoles within Louisiana law and society."--Journal of Southern History "A profound study of the nebulous Creoles. . . . Dom nguez's use of original sources . . . is scholarship at its best. . . . Her study is fascinating, thought-provoking, controversial, and without a doubt, one of the most objective analyses of Creole Louisiana. Her emphasis on social stratification and her excellent integration of ethnic and racial classification of Creoles with legal and social dynamics and individual choice of ethnic identity elucidates strikingly the continuing controversy of who and what is a Louisiana Creole."--Journal of American Ethnic History "Dom nguez's most important contribution lies in her conceptualization of the problem of identity. She treats ethnic identity as something that can change over time, warning us against imposing current meanings on the past and requiring us to consider evidence of how terms were actually used in the past. . . . It is hard to imagine a frame of reference more ideally suited to historical analysis."--Louisiana History "A valuable interdisciplinary examination of the processes of racial definition in Louisiana's history. Her study combines the anthropologist's sensitivity to language and self definition within a community with a skillful exploitation of historical sources."--Law and Society "I highly recommend this book to all persons interested in social stratification."--Alvin L. Bertrand, Contemporary Sociology "A vivid and insightful reading of the historical circumstances that have shaped definitions of Creoles within Louisiana law and society."--Journal of Southern History

Dictionary of Louisiana Creole

1998 Creole dialects, French
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Release : 1998
Genre : Creole dialects, French
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 510/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Dictionary of Louisiana Creole by : Albert Valdman

Download or read book Dictionary of Louisiana Creole written by Albert Valdman. This book was released on 1998. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important reference work has been compiled from existing written sources dating back to 1850 and from material collected in Bayou Teche, the German Coast, Pointe Coupee, and St. Tammany Parish. The Dictionary Features: an informative User's Guide, including details on orthography and the design of the dictionary articles; a grammatical sketch of the language; a guide to variant pronunciations; English and French meaning equivalents; creole contextual examples; identification of where examples were collected, with special notation for historical items (i.e., pre-1960); two indexes: a French-Creole index and an English-Creole index; and rich cultural information, with many examples of folklore, traditional medicine, religious beliefs, and agricultural practices.

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