Publication: null subjects in Bislama

[Malcolm Ross]

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Constraints on null subjects in Bislama (Vanuatu):
Social and linguistic factors

Miriam Meyerhoff

PL 506
        How can developments in a contact language inform the inquiry into the
structural nature of language?  How do they help us better understand the
nature of language change and the processes of  grammaticisation?
       Using data from everyday conversations in Bislama (the national
language of Vanuatu), this book focuses on one variable, the alternation
between overt pronominal and phonetically null subjects. It shows how an
emergent system of subject-verb agreement in Bislama interacts with
functional constraints on the interpretability of a subject; this
interaction accounts for much of the alternation between the two forms of
subject. The rich array of social functions that Bislama serves in the
communities studied is examined in some detail, and yet it is shown that as
Bislama becomes increasingly elaborate morphosyntactically, this kind of
structural innovation takes place largely independently of social factors.
By adopting the methods of sociolinguistics grounded in participant
observation, and being grounded in theoretical treatments of subject
agreement, this volume shows how the study of change in a contact language
helps to bridge issues in different subfields of linguistics.

2000    ISBN 0 85883 522 3              206 + xi pp.
AUS $41.80      ($38.00 international)  Weight 500g



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Dr Malcolm D. Ross
Senior Fellow
Department of Linguistics
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
Australian National University
CANBERRA ACT 0200