22.4227, Diss: Saramaccan: Van de Vate: 'Tense, Aspect and Modality in a ...'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-22-4227. Wed Oct 26 2011. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 22.4227, Diss: Saramaccan: Van de Vate: 'Tense, Aspect and Modality in a ...'

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1)
Date: 25-Oct-2011
From: Marleen Van de Vate [m.s.vandevate at gmail.com]
Subject: Tense, Aspect and Modality in a Radical Creole: The case of Saamáka


-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:40:54
From: Marleen Van de Vate [m.s.vandevate at gmail.com]
Subject: Tense, Aspect and Modality in a Radical Creole: The case of Saamáka

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Institution: University of Tromsø 
Program: Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2011 

Author: Marleen Susanne Van de Vate

Dissertation Title: Tense, Aspect and Modality in a Radical Creole: The case of 
Saamáka 

Dissertation URL:  http://ling.auf.net/lingBuzz/001378

Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable

Subject Language(s): Saramaccan (srm)


Dissertation Director(s):
Gillian Catriona Ramchand

Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation aims to provide an empirically driven and theoretically
informed study of the tense, aspect and modality system of Saamáka (or
Saramaccan), an English/Portuguese based creole spoken along the Suriname
River, Suriname. 
The ambition of this dissertation is three-fold; 
First, to explore the
semantic interpretations and syntactic distribution of each individual
(core) tense, aspect and modality morpheme. Second, to establish the
hierarchy of functional projections in the IP domain. Third, to validate
whether Saamáka conforms to the universal hierarchy of functional
projections as proposed by Cinque (1999, 2001). These goals are intertwined
such that in order to validate the universal hierarchy of functional heads,
it is necessary to investigate the semantic and syntactic characteristics
of each individual tense, aspect and modality morpheme. Once it has been
determined what the characteristics of a certain functional item are, it is
possible to establish the overt manifestation of clausal functional heads
of the language which can be compared to Cinque's universal sequence.  A
strong semantic and syntactic study of the IP domain of Saamáka not only
contributes to the description of an underrepresented language and
therefore to the understanding of language structure in general, but also
makes a comparison with other languages more accessible. Such a comparison
is relevant for the 
field of linguistics in general in that it will be
informative regarding possible language structures which will contribute to
the universal grammar debate and it is also relevant for the 
field of
Creole Studies in that a comparison with other creole languages and/or
substrate languages contributes to the creole genesis debate.
The data discussed in this dissertation was collected during two fieldwork
trips to Pikin Slee (spring 2008, spring 2009), which is a small village
along the Suriname River. 





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