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Kriyol Syntax: The Portuguese-Based Creole Language of Guinea-Bissau

Article in Language · June 1997

DOI: 10.2307/416086

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J. Clancy Clements Alain Kihm

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458 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 73, NUMBER 2 (1997)

book that would serve that goal in

these
a much
TMA items,
more too complex to present in this
brief review,
useful and intelligent way. [MATTHEw is also examined and worth reading
S. DRYER,
State University of New York, Buffalo.]
in order to appreciate the complexities involved
in the interrelation of aktionsart, tense, and as-
pect and how to capture them formally.
Ch. 4, 'The noun phrase' (125-85), addresses
Kriyol syntax: The Portuguese-based
compound formation (left-headed, e.g. bicu-ka-
creole language of Guinea-Bissau.
belu [lit.worm hair] 'caterpillar'), derivation
By ALAIN KIHM. Amsterdam & (largely suffixal), and nominal inflectional mor-
phology (having two distinct systems). The NP
Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1994.
order is neg + dem + un + Poss + NUM (nin kil un
Pp. xii, 310. si baka [lit. not even that one his/her cow] 'not
Although pidgin and creole linguistics haseven that certain cow of his/hers'), though such
truly thrived in the last 30 years, most activitylong strings are not documented. Also included
has been focussed on English- and French- here is an in-depth study of what K calls 'special
based pidgins and creoles. The present mono- types of NPs', namely pronouns and nominal
graph is one of several volumes finally beginning infinitives.
to appear on Portuguese-based creoles, a wel- Embedding, which includes factive verb, ad-
come occurrence for the first western European junct and gerundive complements, and compar-
language to have been pidginized/creolized in ative and serial verb constructions, is dealt with
the colonial expansion. in Ch. 5, 'The complex sentence' (187-215). K
As the focus of the volume is syntax, the ori- discusses at length some idiosyncratic charac-
gin and evolution of Kriyol are touched upon teristics of the complementizer kuma, which ap-
only cursorily in Ch. 1, 'Introduction' (1-19), parently but not unequivocally functions as a
which also includes a brief phonological sketch verb in certain cases, and nos, a comple-
of the creole. Kihm works within a broad GPSG mentizer that seems to co-occur obligatorily
framework which allows him the option of in- with a negator in either the matrix clause or the
corporating formalisms from HPSG and auto- embedded clause (203), something which may
lexical syntax where these provide insight for have been overlooked. K makes an interesting
his analyses. This eclectic theoretical approachcase for the presence of gerundives in Kriyol:
reflects K's respect for complexity in natural whereas Kriyol serial verb constructions are al-
language and detracts nothing from the vol- ways same-subject constructions, and control
ume's readability. structures presuppose nonsimultaneity of
K starts his study by looking at 'The simple events denoted by matrix and embedded
sentence' (21-81). He examines predicate com- clauses, Kriyol gerundive constructions involve
position, negation, occurrence of arguments simultaneous events and are not same-subject
(subjectless verbs, sentential subjects, double constructions, e.g. I oja lubu na pasa (lit. he
object constructions), and adverbs. Some inter- see wolf ASPECT pass) 'he saw the hyena passing
esting topics dealt with include the presenceby'. in It is not clear that nonsimultaneity need
Kriyol of both verb- and adjective-like adjec- be a presupposition for control verbs. Crucial
tives, and double object constructions, among seems to be that the lexical make up of a control
which K includes examples which seem to be verb have one of its arguments, subject or ob-
not objects (i.e. arguments), but rather un- ject, controlling the subject slot of the embed-
ded clause verb. K also discusses comparative
marked adjuncts, e.g. e coki / mesinyu (lit. they
impair him poison) 'They impaired him with poi-
constructions, which contain some element with
son'. Also of interest is K's treatment of control
the meaning 'surpass', also present in substrate
verbs as auxiliaries and not matrix-clause verbs.
languages and other related creoles.
Ch. 3, 'Tense and aspect' (83-123), discusses In Ch. 6, 'Unbound dependencies: Topicali-
the TMA markers na (specific imperfective, zation, focalization and questions' (217-39), we
prospective future), ta (nonspecific, i.e. habit-
see that Kriyol question formation forms a sub-
ual/generic/iterative, imperfective), ba (past;set of its focalized structures, i.e. cleft construc-
originally the Portuguese imperfective suffix tions, the only difference being that the former
-va), bin (specific future, adverb 'then'; origi-
contains a wh- word while the latter does not.
nally 'come') ba (specific, i.e. habitual/generic,
This has parallels in Portuguese: onde e que nos
future; originally 'go'). The combination of vamos 'where is it that we are going'. In his

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 BOOK NOTICES 459

discussion of topicalization, K highlights, a great pleasure to read. [J. CLANCY CLEMENTS,

among other things, the advantages of a GPSG Indiana University.]
account of binding facts involved.
For the formation of 'Middles, passives, and
causatives' (241-61), discussed in Ch. 7, mor-
phology plays an important role, an anomaly The structure of lexical variation:
given that creoles typically are thought of as
having no or next to no morphology. While only
Meaning, naming and context. By
some Kriyol transitive verbs, such as miti 'put', DIRK GEERAERTS, STEFAN GRONDE-
can be used intransitively with a middle inter- LAERS, and PETER BAKEMA. Berlin
pretation, Kriyol passivization appears to be an & New York: Mouton de Gruyter,
entirely productive, word formational process
1994. Pp. viii, 221. Cloth DM
with no use of any passive auxiliary: da 'give',
128.00.
dadu 'be-given'. Interestingly, indirect as well
as direct objects in Kriyol can be passivized: i This volume is an in-depth, systematic, cogni-
furtadu si galinya (lit. he be-stolen his chicken) tive-oriented study of the complexities of nam-
'he had his chicken stolen' (245). Whereas one ing objects in natural language and the multiple
causative construction type involves causative aspects and perspectives involved. Its focus is
auxiliaries, another is achieved morphologi- on prototype effects found in naming objects.
cally: E bibi+-nti ome binyu. . . (lit. they The study concentrates generally on two per-
drink +CAUSE man wine) 'they made the man spectives in naming. The semasiological per-
drink wine....' K's eclectic, insightful account spective takes as its starting point a word form,
of these structures is well thought out and clear. e.g. /ji:nz/, and takes note of the objects the
In the final chapter, 'Beyond the sentence: word form can denote. Important here is the
A few considerations on Kriyol texts, especiallyreferential scope and referential variability of
comic-books' (263-68), K pays tribute to the /ji:nz/. The onomasiological perspective starts
phenomenon of comic books in Guinea-Bissau with an object (e.g. a pair of jeans) and takes
written in Kriyol, a major data source for his note of what word forms can be used to name
study. the object. Here Geeraerts, Grondelaers, and
Overall, the volume is well written. K is clear Bakema introduce a further distinction: in se-
and eloquent in his expression. Moreover, he lecting a name for an object in a given situation,
employes formalisms transparently and has there is the choice of a conceptual category (e.g.
managed to incorporate semantics and pragmat- the conceptual category of jeans) as well as the
ics in a way that greatly facilitates the under- choice of a lexical item within the category (e.g.
standing of the material he is dealing with. The jeans or blue jeans).
volume occasionally goes beyond linguistics The lexical field studied is that of clothing
proper-especially in the introduction-into terms in contemporary Dutch. The database for
other matters. A case in point is his insights intothe study consists of 9000 instances of words
the choice of academic professions (11). For log-identifying garments taken from general and
ical and practical reasons, the examination offashion magazines from 1991. Only those lexical
the simple sentence (Ch. 2) belongs after that of items were used that denoted a referent on a
the TMA system and the noun phrase (Chs. picture accompanying the text. The authors
3-4). Minor oversights, such as the occasionalchose such a database because it permits an
absence of punctuation, typos-e.g. meaning-analysis from both the semasiological and ono-
full (260); some are systematic, e.g. men- masiological perspectives.
tionned, conditionning-and nonstandard Ch. 1, 'Varieties and variation' (1-16), the in-
English usage-depend from instead of dependtroduction to the study, gives clear illustrative
on (190), cartons of invitation instead of invita- examples of how the authors treat lexical varia-
tion cards (243), the direction's decision insteadtion, along with the key points of the study to be
of the management's decision (189)-detract treated in subsequent chapters. Ch. 2, 'Methods
little from the volume. It contains a wealth of and materials' (17-44) reviews the structure of
information useful to the creolist and the generalthe database. Especially impressive here is the
linguist alike, it strikes a well-tempered balance thoroughness in range and number of features
between data and the theoretical apparatus usedposited to characterize the set of items under
to account for them, and, last but not least, it is
study.

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