Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online

1. Introduction ⇫ ¶

Demonstratives are commonly divided into pronominal demonstratives, which replace a noun or noun phrase (as in French Je préfère celui-ci. ‘I prefer this one.’), and adnominal demonstratives, which determine a noun (as in French Je préfère ce livre. ‘I prefer this book.’). This feature corresponds to WALS Feature 42 (Diessel 2005b).

2. The values ⇫ ¶

We distinguish the following three values:

	Same forms	41
	Different forms	30
	Same stems, different inflectional features	4
Representation:		75

Value 1 (pronominal and adnominal demonstratives have the same form) is found in 11 Ibero-Romance-based languages, in 12 English-based languages, in three French-based languages, in three Malay-based languages, in two Arabic-based languages, in Negerhollands and Sango, in the mixed languages Media Lengua, Michif, and Mixed Ma’a/Mbugu, as well as in the pidgin languages Chinuk Wawa, Fanakalo, Pidgin Hawaiian, Pidgin Hindustani, and Yimas-Arafundi Pidgin.

Value 2 (pronominal and adnominal demonstratives are formally distinguished) occurs in 14 English-based languages, in seven Ibero-Romance-based languages, in six French-based languages, in Afrikaans, Kikongo-Kituba, and in Chinese Pidgin Russian.

In Nengee, for instance, pronominal and adnominal demonstratives have different stems: disi is used pronominally and a NOUN ya is used adnominally:

In Santome (as well as in the other Portuguese-based Gulf of Guinea creoles), the adnominal demonstrative gets the prefix i- to form the pronoun:

Still other languages use one form for only one function, and another form for both functions; i.e. they show overlap. An example is Haitian sa ‘this’ (only pronominal) and sa a ‘this’ (pronominal and adnominal). These cases are subsumed under value 2.

Value 3 (pronominal and adnominal demonstratives have the same stems but different inflectional properties) occurs in Sri Lanka Portuguese, in Berbice Dutch, in Lingala, and in the mixed language Gurindji Kriol.

In Sri Lanka Portuguese, the pronominal demonstrative is inflected for plural, whereas the adnominal demonstrative is not:

In the mixed language Gurindji Kriol, the pronominal demonstrative is case-marked (example 9b), in contrast to the adnominal demonstrative (example 9a), which is not:

3. Areal distribution ⇫ ¶

Value 1 (same form) is found in all regions, in contrast to value 2 (different forms), which is present on both sides of the Atlantic and in the Pacific but is absent from South and Southeast Asia. Value 3 is represented by only four languages in different parts of the world: Berbice Dutch in the Caribbean, Lingala in Central Africa, Sri Lanka Portuguese in South Asia, and Gurindji Kriol in Australia.

4. Comparison with WALS ⇫ ¶

The comparison with WALS shows that the percentage of the values differs considerably: The percentage of APiCS languages having value 2 (different forms) is twice as big as the percentage of WALS languages having the same value:

According to Diessel (2005b), value 2 is especially frequent in Northern and Central Africa; these, however, are areas where no APiCS languages are spoken (except for Sango, which displays value 1, see example 3). But in the WALS languages, value 2 is absent from South and Southeast Asia, as is the case in the APiCS languages.

What stands out with regard to the APiCS languages is the high concentration of value 2 in West Africa. Out of the 14 West African languages, 11 show value 2, and only three show value 1, namely the three Cape Verdean varieties. Out of those languages which exhibit value 2, five are English-based (Cameroon Pidgin English, Ghanaian Pidgin English, Krio, Pichi, and Nigerian Pidgin English), and six are Portuguese-based (Angolar, Fa d’Ambô, Principense, Santome, Guinea-Bissau Kriyol, and Casamancese).

In the case of the English-based creoles, value 2 can be explained by English superstrate (or adstrate) influence. These languages are of the type dat (adnominal) vs. datwon (pronominal), as in Nigerian Pidgin English.

In the case of the Portuguese-based creoles, the situation is different since Portuguese exhibits value 1 (same form for both pronominal and adnominal demonstratives).

In the Gulf of Guinea creoles, the prefix i- is attached to the adnominal demonstratives to form the corresponding pronouns, as in the Santome example (6) above. Since this construction is not directly derived from Portuguese, it must be either an independent development or a case of African substrate influence. In Edo, an Edoid language spoken in Nigeria, the proximal adnominal demonstrative has the form na/nà and the pronominal ɔna (sg) and ɛna (pl) (Melzian 1937: 128, 167). Edo has value 3 (different inflections, since in contrast to the adnominal forms, the pronominal forms inflect for number); but in a contact situation, value 3 could have easily been reinterpreted as value 2, different forms.