This volume presents a collection of new articles by sixteen specialists in the field of pidgin and creole studies, assembled in honor of the world- renowned creolist, Albert Valdman. The articles, written from a variety of theoretical perspectives, are organized thematically in three sections: on the history of specific pidgins or creoles (including Louisiana Creole and Haitian Creole); on the sociohistorical settings that gave rise to these contact languages and issues affecting their future development; and on issues of linguistic variation and change. In keeping with Valdman's own primary interests, the French-based creoles receive the most attention, including both those of the Atlantic zone and those of the Indian Ocean, but the volume also presents significant scholarship on English- and Portuguese- based varieties.

Table of contents

Introduction J. Clancy Clements, Thomas A. Klingler, Deborah Piston-Hatlen and Kevin J. Rottet 1-8 Section One: History Louisiana Creole at the periphery Thomas A. Klingler and Nathalie Dajko 11-28 Using and interpreting historical texts to analyze the formation and development of creole languages Marie-Christine Hazael-Massieux 29-45 Lexical aspects of French and Creole in Saint-Domingue at the end of the eighteenth century Pierre Rézeau 47-75 The lexicalization - grammaticalization continuum J. Clancy Clements 77-101 Creole transplantation: A source of solutions to resistant anomalies John McWhorter 103-133 Section Two: Society Creoles, capitalism, and colonialism Derek Bickerton 137-152 A curiosity of Mauritian Creole: Numerical slang Robert Chaudenson 153-161 Theoretical and practical conditions for the emergence of a koine among French-lexified creole languages Jean Bernabé 163-177 French in Haiti: Contacts and conflicts between linguistic representations Corinne Etienne 179-200 Section Three: Variation Albert Valdman on the development of creoles Salikoko S. Mufwene 203-223 Diatopic variation in Haitian Creole Annegret Bollée and Pamela Nembach 225-233 Interrogative pronouns in Louisiana Creole and the Multiple Genesis Hypothesis Kevin J. Rottet 235-249 Gender in French creoles: The story of a loser Ingrid Neumann-Holzschuh 251-272 Tense, mood, and aspect and the Deixis Ordering Principle Anand Syea 273-296 Index 297-304