"Variation Rolls the Dice: A worldwide collage in honour of Salikoko Mufwene aims to celebrate Mufwene's ground-breaking contribution to linguistics in the past four decades. The title also encapsulates his approach to language as both systemic and socio-cultural practices, and the role of variation in determining particular evolutionary trajectories in specific linguistic ecologies. The book therefore focuses on variation within and across languages, within and across speakers, and how this fundamental aspect of human behavior can affect language structure in time and space. Mufwene has been instrumental in putting creole languages on the map of General Linguistics and connecting their analysis to issues of language acquisition, multilingualism, language contact, language evolution, and language typology. Thanks to the diversity of topics and the wide-ranging theoretical persuasions of the contributors, this volume aims at a large readership including both scholars and advanced students interested in cutting-edge research in the aforementioned domains"--.

• Variation Rolls the Dice
• Editorial page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Table of contents
• Acknowledgements
• Acronyms and Glosses
• 1. Introduction
  • 1. An ecological approach to Salikoko S. Mufwene’s intellectual journey
  • 2. Mufwene’s language ecology approach
  • 3. The chapters of this book
  • References
• 2. A sociolinguistic typology for languages in contact
  • 1. Introduction
    • 1.1 Linguistic features, or linguemes
    • 1.2 Evolutionary linguistics and language contact
  • 2. Towards a sociolinguistic typology of languages with respect to intersocietal contact
  • 3. The exoteric language continuum and its relation to social organization
    • 3.1 Pidgins and the exoteric language continuum
    • 3.2 Exoteric languages and social organization
    • 3.3 African lingua francas before, or in apparent absence of, European contact
    • 3.4 African lingua francas in the context of European contact
    • 3.5 North American lingua francas and trade pidgins
    • 3.6 Pidgins in Papua New Guinea before European contact
    • 3.7 Social changes and changes in the type of exoteric language
  • 4. The neogenic language continuum
    • 4.1 Language shift and lingua francas
    • 4.2 Neogeny from closely related varieties: Koiné and standard
    • 4.3 Neogeny involving speakers of sharply distinct varieties: Restructured varieties and creoles
  • 5. “Mixed languages” and the esoteric language continuum
    • 5.1 Neogeny and “mixed languages”: Mixed-marriage languages and semi-shift
    • 5.2 Increasing esotericism and “mixed languages”: Death by borrowing
    • 5.3 Sources of linguemes in “mixed languages”
  • 6. Conclusion
  • References
• 3. A local history of Tok Pisin
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. The early history of Tok Pisin
  • 3. Exploitation colonization in Papua New Guinea: Earliest impacts on Buang villagers
  • 4. The Bulolo Gold Rush of the 1930s
  • 5. World War II and beyond
  • 6. Discussion
  • Acknowledgement
  • References
• 4. Conventionalised creativity in the emergence of a mixed language – A case study of Light Warlpiri
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Theories about mechanisms of a mixed language emerging from code-switching practices
  • 3. Structure of Light Warlpiri
    • 3.1 Verbal structure of Light Warlpiri
    • 3.2 Nominal structure of Light Warlpiri
    • Ergative case-marking
    • Dative case-marking
    • 3.3 Sentence-level syntax and verb-argument structure in Light Warlpiri
  • 4. Light Warlpiri and theories of ML emergence
  • 5. Conclusion
  • References
• 5. Acquisition or shift
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. The absolute FoR, bilingualism and language change
  • 3. Changes in the use of the absolute frame of reference
  • 4. Experimental task: “Man and Tree”
    • 4.1 Procedure
    • 4.2 Participants
    • 4.3 Coding
    • 4.4 Summary of major strategies used
      • 4.4.1 Children’s use of cardinals
      • 4.4.2 Children’s use of landmarks
    • 4.5 Discussion
      • 4.5.1 Acquisition or language change?
      • 4.5.2 A landmark-based or quasi-absolute system?
  • 5. Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
• 6. Substrate influence in Northern Quechua languages
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. The sociolinguistic history and the position of Northern Quechua in the Quechuan family
  • 3. Theoretical and methodological considerations
  • 4. General features of Northern Quechua varieties possibly due to substrate influence
    • 4.1 Collapse of the genitive and benefactive cases
    • 4.2 The loss of the inclusive/exclusive distinction
    • 4.3 Phonological features
    • 4.4 Nominal reference marking
    • 4.5 The reinterpretation and reduction of the Quechua copula ka- as a clitic under the possible influence of Chicham
    • 4.6 The spread in use of a negative existential verb illa-, possibly modelled on Chicham or Barbacoan
    • 4.7 Change in the status of the evidential
  • 5. Highland Ecuadorian Kichwa
    • 5.1 The development of a desiderative involving the verb “say” in the southern highlands
    • 5.2 Dual hortative
    • 5.3 Switch reference in purposive nominalization
  • 6. Lowland Kichwa: Intentional or future with “do”
  • 7. Colombian Inga
    • 7.1 The introduction of diminutive or pejorative suffixes
    • 7.2 The potential marker -ntra
    • 7.3 Object marking
  • 8. Peruvian South Pastaza Quechua
    • 8.1 Nominal person marking
    • 8.2 Inalienable kinship
    • 8.3 Vocative
    • 8.4 Indirect object marking
  • 9. Conclusions and discussion
  • References
• 7. Coordination in the Suriname Creoles
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Coordination
    • 2.1 Defining coordination
    • 2.2 Coordination in Creoles
  • 3. Coordination in Nenge(e) and Matawai: An overview
  • 4. Conjunctive coordination
    • 4.1 Nominal coordination
    • 4.2 Phrasal conjunctive coordination
    • 4.3 Coordination with en
    • 4.4 Zero coordination
    • 4.5 Soseefi
  • 5. Disjunctive and adversative constructions
  • 6. Summary and conclusion
  • References
• 8. Reflections on Darwin’s natural selection
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Competition as a valuable heuristic tool in linguistics
  • 3. On the role of idiolects, infinitesimal variations and their powerful effects on language change
  • 4. Darwin’s perspective on variation in natural selection
  • 5. On the relevance of Swadesh lists: Insights into variation, competition and selection
  • 6. Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • References
• 9. Building grammar in the early stages of development of French Creoles
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. SLA and Creole language development
    • 2.1 Creole language development as SLA: Previous work
      • 2.1.1 Mufwene and SLA research
      • 2.1.2 Aboh’s rejection of Creoles as interlanguages
    • 2.2 What is at stake in the current debate on Creole development and SLA?
  • 3. Analyzing early creolization in FRC
    • 3.1 The external ecology of FRC
    • 3.2 Early texts in FRC
    • 3.3 A historical account of the development of FRC grammar
  • 4. Rationale
    • 4.1 A functionalist account of the development of grammar in SLA
      • 4.1.1 Stages in L2 acquisition
      • 4.1.2 The pre -Basic Variety (pre-BV) in SLA: Properties and constraints
      • 4.1.3 The Basic Variety (BV) in SLA: Properties and constraints
    • 4.2 Grammatical categories and phrasal constraints in early SLA
    • 4.3 A tertium comparationis: Comparing and contrasting early FSL and FRC data
    • 4.4 Research questions
  • 5. The FSL informants
  • 6. Aspects of the development of early grammar in FSL
    • 6.1 Verb forms at early stages of FSL
      • 6.1.1 Basic verb forms: VØ and/or Ve
      • 6.1.2 The semantics of VØ and Ve in pre-basic and basic learner varieties
      • 6.1.3 Summary
    • 6.2 Negation in FSL
    • 6.3 Il y a and se (“There is”) in FSL
      • 6.3.1 Il y a (“There is”)
      • 6.3.2 C’est (“It is”)
      • 6.3.3 Summary
  • 7. Aspects of the building of grammar in FRC
    • 7.1 Verb forms in FRC
      • a. Atlantic Ocean FRC
      • b. Indian Ocean FRC
      • 7.1.1 Summary
    • 7.2 Negation in FRC
      • a. Atlantic Ocean FRC
      • b. Indian Ocean FRC
      • 7.2.1 Summary
    • 7.3 Il y a and C’est (‘There is’) in FRC
      • a. Atlantic Ocean FRC
      • b. Indian Ocean FRC
      • 7.3.1 Summary
  • 8. Discussion
  • Acknowledgement
  • References
• 10. Foundings and futures
  • 1 “Live like a Peranakan”
  • 2. The making of the Peranakans: A snapshot
  • 3. A study for the paradigms
    • 3.1 The persistence of founders
    • 3.2 Multilingualism matters
    • 3.3 The practice of postvernacularity, and beyond
    • 3.4 Maintenance of culture in the language of wider communication
    • 3.5 Commodification and branding in centre-periphery dynamics
  • 4. Post-digital Peranakan practice
    • 4.1 What’s in a name?
    • 4.2 Culture, not language
    • 4.3 Postvernacular practice
    • 4.4 Vernacular costs
    • 4.5 The commodification of authenticity
    • 4.6 Heritage branding
  • 5. Experience like a Peranakan
  • References
• 11. Detecting loan words computationally
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Mufwene’s perspective
  • 3. Previous work
  • 4. Data
  • 5. Measuring pronunciation similarity
  • 6. General setup
  • 7. Evaluation and results
    • Examples of detected loans
  • 8. Discussion and prospects
    • Conclusions and a speculation
    • Future work
    • Prospects
  • Acknowledgements
  • Supplementary data
  • References
• 12. Learnability and ecological factors as motivators of language change
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Theoretical background
  • 3. Dutch gender acquisition
  • 4. Selection
  • 5. Feature spread
    • 5.1 Twitter
      • 5.1.1 Methodology
      • 5.1.2 Results
  • 6. Conclusion
  • References
• 13. The restructuring of Salikoko Mufwene through competition and selection
  • From founder principle to funder principle
  • On Creole studies as the making and unmaking of exceptionalist myths about the colonized and their languages
  • On biography, geography and bibliography
  • On symbolic markets and personal investments in Creole studies and in Creole communities
  • On the journey ahead
  • References
• Language Index
• Subject Index