Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online

1. Introduction ⇫ ¶

In this chapter, we consider a type of experiencer construction expressing an emotion. More specifically, we look at expressions of situations corresponding to English Lea likes mangoes. ‘Like’ (experiencer) constructions involve two participants, an experiencer (Lea) and a stimulus (mangoes).

There is a lot of interesting variation in such constructions. However, in the present chapter we mainly focus on the question how the experiencer is expressed. It may be treated as a subject (‘Lea likes mangoes’), as a (direct) object (‘Mangoes please Lea’), or it may be marked as dative (‘To Lea mangoes are pleasing’). Another possibility is to treat both experiencer and stimulus as objects (‘Me like mangoes’). A language may have several different ‘like’ constructions.

2. The values ⇫ ¶

In this feature we distinguish four values:

		excl	shrd	all
	Experiencer is subject	54	15	69
	Experiencer is object	0	11	11
	Experiencer is dative	3	4	7
	Both experiencer and stimulus are objects	1	0	1
Representation:				73

The most widespread construction type is value 1, where the experiencer is coded like the subject of a typical action verb like ‘pull’ or ‘talk’. The stimulus may be coded as a direct object or oblique, as illustrated in examples (1)-(4). In (1) and (4), the stimulus in coded as a direct object, while in (2) and (3), the stimulus is coded as an oblique phrase (i.e. a phrase coded by a special preposition).

1. Early Sranan (van den Berg & Bruyn 2013)

No, mi no lobi bori-wan.

NEG 1SG NEG love boil(ed)-one

‘No, I don’t like boiled ones.’

2. Fa d’Ambô (Post 2013)

Amu-ngo ku pisyi.

1SG-want with fish

‘I like fish.’

3. Cape Verdean Creole of Brava (Baptista 2013)

Es gostaba di rapazinhu.

they like.ANT of little.boy

‘They liked the little boy.’

4. Kinubi (Luffin 2013)

úwo gi-híbu béle t-ómun

3PL IPFV-like country GEN-their

‘They like their country.’

In constructions of value 2, the stimulus is coded as subject, whereas the experiencer is treated like an object of a typical transitive verb like ‘break’ or ‘kill’. This type is illustrated in examples (5)-(7), where literal translations are added. In all these cases, the stimulus is the subject.

(5) Creolese (Devonish & Thompson 2013)

di jook swiit mi

the joke sweet me

‘I enjoyed the joke.’ (Lit. ‘The joke sweeted me.’)

(6) Cape Verdean Creole of São Vicente (Swolkien 2013)

Ketxupa ta keí-m ben.

ketxupa PRS please-1SG well

‘I like ketxupa a lot’. (Lit. ‘Ketxupa pleases me well.’) (Ketxupa is a regional dish.)

(7) Casamancese Creole (Biagui & Quint 2013)

Maŋgu ø sabi-mi.

mango PFV nice-1SG.INDP

‘I like mangoes’ (Lit. ‘Mangoes are nice (to) me.’

OR: ‘Mangoes please me.’)

See example 34-106

(8) Pichi (Yakpo 2013)

Dan gal dè fayn mi.

that girl IPFV be.fine 1SG.EMPH

‘I find that girl to be beautiful.’ (Lit. ‘That girl fines me.’)

See example 19-126

None of the APiCS languages which show value 2 has this type as the only option to express ‘like’. As is apparent from the examples, the meaning of value 2 (experiencer is object) constructions may differ slightly from the meaning of value 1 (experiencer is subject) constructions since value 2 constructions present the emotion situation from the perspective of the stimulus. Nevertheless, our definition is wide enough to subsume these cases here.

In the next construction type (value 3), the experiencer is marked as dative, i.e. like the recipient of a typical ditransitive verb like ‘give’, as in examples (10)-(14). The coding of the recipient is also discussed in Chapter 60 (on ditransitive constructions with ‘give’). The dative marker may be a preposition as in Sango (10), a serial verb as in Nengee (11), or sometimes a case affix as in the South Asian languages (12-14):

(11) Nengee (Migge 2013)

A nyanyan switi gi mi tee.

DET food please give me very.much

‘I like the food very much.’

OR: ‘The food pleases me very much.’

See example 4-110

(13) Sri Lanka Portuguese (Smith 2013)

per-mi teem dizeey isti siriviis

dat-1SG be please this work

‘I like this work. / I am pleased with this work.’

So far we have not considered word order in this chapter. But looking at languages which show value 3, there is some variation in the position of the dative experiencer. It follows the verb in SVO languages, and it precedes the verb in SOV languages, i.e. it behaves like the object in transitive constructions (see also Chapter 1 on order of subject, object, and verb). The first two examples (10) and (11) from Sango and Nengee are from languages with SVO order. Here the dative-marked experiencer follows the (main) verb. The South Asian languages in (12)-(14) mainly show SOV order. Here the experiencer is in preverbal position, but often it precedes the stimulus as seen most clearly in (12) and (13).

In yet another construction type, both the stimulus and the experiencer are coded as objects (value 4). Media Lengua is the only APiCS language which shows this pattern. Here accusative marking makes it clear that both arguments are objects.

3. Distribution ⇫ ¶

As shown in the value box, constructions with a subject experiencer (value 1) are by far the most widespread among the APiCS languages. The construction type of value 2 (experiencer is object) is found in 11 APiCS languages, of which none has this type as its only option to express a ‘like’ situation. Value 3 (experiencer is dative) is represented by only 7 languages, of which Sango, Sri Lankan Malay and Tayo show this option as their only one.

As for the geographical distribution, the most widespread construction type (value 1, experiencer is subject) is found in all regions of the world, in creoles, pidgins, and mixed languages alike, and it is not restricted to a certain lexical base of the contact language.

Of the 11 languages showing value 2 (experiencer is object), nine are Atlantic creoles: eight are English-based languages of the Caribbean (Bahamian Creole, Creolese, Jamaican, Vincentian), and West Africa (Ghanaian Pidgin English, Cameroon Pidgin English, Pichi, Nigerian Pidgin). The three others are two Portuguese-based languages, Cape Verdean Creole of São Vicente and Casamancese Creole, and the Bantu-based language Lingala. As the “experiencer is object”-pattern is not very prominent in the relevant European lexifiers English and Portuguese (the English type It pleases me is marginal), one may suspect substrate influence (Ameka 1990 has some pertinent discussion regarding experiencer constructions in Ewe).

Value 3 (experiencer is dative) is exhibited by seven languages, three of which are spoken in India and Sri Lanka. If we look at the substrates/adstrates of the South Asian contact languages, we find clearly parallel constructions called “dative subject constructions” in the literature (e.g. Verma & Mohanan 1991). In these South Asian languages too, the argument expressing the human experiencer is coded as a dative argument, which typically occurs in the topical initial position of the sentence (unlike the Nengee and Sango examples in (10) and (11), which show the dative experiencer in postverbal position).

The rare construction type (value 4) of Media Lengua, where both experiencer and stimulus are marked as objects, is modeled on the Quechua pattern.