In this volume, second language (L2) acquisition researchers and creolists engage in a dialogue, focusing on processes at work in L2 acquisition and creole genesis. The volume opens with an overview of the relationship between L2 acquisition and pidgins/creoles (Siegel). The first group of papers addresses current language contact at a societal or an individual level (Smith; Terrill and Dunn; Bruhn de Garavito and Atoche; Liceras et al.; Müller). The second section focuses on processes characterizing various stages of L2 acquisition and creole genesis: relexification and transfer from the L1 and their role in the initial state (Sprouse; Schwartz; Kouwenberg; Aboh; Ionin).

Chapters in the third section discuss processes involved in developing grammars, namely, reanalysis and restructuring (Sánchez; Brousseau and Nikiema; Steele and Brousseau). The final section concentrates on fossilization and the end state (Cornips and Hulk; Montrul; Lardiere). Between them, the chapters cover lexical, morphological, phonological, semantic and syntactic properties of interlanguage grammars and creole grammars.

Table of contents

Preface vii Introduction Claire Lefebvre, Lydia White and Christine Jourdan 1–14 Links between SLA and Creole studies: Past and present 15–46 I. Contact Very rapid Creolization in the framework of the restricted motivation hypothesis Norval Smith 49–65 Semantic transference: Two preliminary case studies from the Solomon Islands Angela Terrill and Michael Dunn 67–85 Variability in contact Spanish: Implications for second language acquisition Joyce Bruhn de Garavito and Cristina Atoche 87–111 L2 Acquisition as a process of Creolization: Insights form child and adult code-mixing Juana M. Liceras, C. Martinez, R. Pérez-Tattam, S. Perales and Raquel Fernandez Fuertes 113–144 Emerging complementizers: German in contact with French/Italian Natascha Müller 145–165 II. Processes: Initial state (transfer and relexification) Full transfer and relexification: Second language acquisition and Creole genesis Rex A. Sprouse 169–181 Transfer as bootstrapping Bonnie D. Schwartz 183–204 LI transfer and the cut-off point for L2 acquisition processes in Creole formation Sylvia Kouwenberg 205–219 The role of the syntax-semantics interface in language transfer Enoch Olade Aboh 221–252 A Comparison of article semantics in L2 acquisition and Creole languages Tania Ionin 253–273 III. Processes: Developing grammars (restructuring and reanalysis) Bilingual grammars and Creoles: Similarities between functional convergence and morphological elaboration Liliana Sánchez 277–294 From GBE to Haitian: The multi-stage evolution of syllable structure Anne-Marie Brousseau and Emmanuel Nikiema 295–330 Parallels in process: Comparing Haitian Creole and French learner phonologies Jeffrey Steele and Anne-Marie Brousseau 331–352 IV.Processes: Final state (fossilization) External and internal factors in billingual and bidialectal language development: Grammatical gender of the Dutch definite determiner Leonie Cornips and Aafke Hulk 355–377 Incomplete acquisition in bilingualism as an instance of language change Silvina A. Montrul 379–400 Comparing Creole genisis with SLA in unlimited-acces contexts: Going beyond relexification Donna Lardiere 401–427 Index of Languages and language families 429–430 Index of subjects 431–433