Changing meanings, changing functions: Papers relating to grammaticalization in contact languages Ed. by Philip Baker and Anand Syea (review)

214 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 75, NUMBER 1 (1999) From contact to creóle and beyond. Ed. by Philip Baker. (Westminster creolistics series, 1.) London: University of Westminster Press, 1995. Pp. 268. This anthology collects papers originally delivered at the 1994 and 1995 Westminster Creole Conferences , with the addition of a few solicited especially for the volume. As this conference has quickly become one of the most vital in the field, this volume is one ofthe most timely and wide-ranging creolistics anthologies ever published. It contains important papers by many central figures, nicely divided between long-established thinkers and newer voices. It is highly recommended for insights into many of the issues currently of most concern in creóle studies, especially since its paperback format makes it inexpensive and its editing is superb. Some of the most interesting papers are longneeded sociohistorical ones. William Jennings presents detailed research on early Cayenne in his investigation of the birth of French Guyanais, while John Ladhams unravels the mystery of why Karipúna Indians in French Guiana speak a variety ofthis creóle. In separate papers. Jennings and Mikael Parkvall argue that St. Kitts was the most likely site of origin for the French Caribbean Creoles, the former citing documentary evidence and the latter, sociohistorical. Karin Speedy argues that two separate French cre- óles emerged in Louisiana. Creole genesis theory is refined in two papers. Philip Baker opens the volume with an outline of his creativist hypothesis of creóle genesis, arguing that the late appearance of central features in many creóles suggests that they were neither incompletely acquired superstrates nor reproduced substrates but independent creations reflecting new identities. Chris Corne carefully documents the Melanesian contribution to Tayo French Creole of New Caledonia , taking into account vernacular French contributions as well. In the descriptive arena, Marike Post discusses aspect marking in Fa D'Ambu (a Portuguese creóle often called Annobonese), while Hildo Honorio do Couto surveys ideophones (which he calls 'exclusive particles') in the Portuguese creóle of GuineaBissau , with a strong substratist intention. Anthony Grant provides a thorough survey and comparision of the rates of fossilized article agglutination on nouns in French creóles worldwide as well as in Michif, Bislama, Chinook Jargon, and Pidgin Sango. Neville Shrimpton and Philip Baker examine a recently discovered text written in the English (rather than French) creóle of late eighteenth century St. Kitts. Gertrude Aub-Buscher discusses pitfalls in compiling creóle dictionaries. In other papers, Ingo Plag questions the distinction between creolization and ordinary language change; Anand Syea suggests an internal, rather than contact-based, origin for synthetic genitives in Mauritian French Creole; and the ever-idiosyncratic Peter Mühlhäusler suggests that creóle studies have been unduly constrained by limiting metaphorical frames which ought tobe replacedby moTe holistic ones emphasizing pidgins and créoles as elements within a general linguistic 'ecology'. [John McWhorter, University of California, Berkeley.] Changing meanings, changing functions : Papers relating to grammaticalization in contact languages. Ed. by Philip Baker and Anand Syea. (Westminster creolistics series, 2.) London: University of Westminster Press, 1996. Pp. 293. This volume collects papers from the 1995 Westminster Creole Conference and some solicited afterwards . Like the first volume in this series, this collection comprises a wide variety of creóles and approaches, with relatively less 'filler' than is typical ofsuch anthologies. Especially given its affordability as a paperback, this book should be sought by all libraries and individuals as a current and representative source on Creole studies. Adrienne Bruyn offers an insightful analysis of Sranan constructions, showing the importance of teasing apparent grammaticalization apart from simple substrate transfers, and Norval Smith demonstrates this in identifying a Gbe precursor for the quirky Saramaccan discourse marker we, which has often given the appearance of being an extension of English well. Magnus Huber charts the development of aspectual markers in Ghanaian Pidgin English, a language virtually undocumented until recently. Tonjes Veenstra assesses the degree of grammaticalization of certain verbs in Saramaccan, while Anand Syea traces the evolution of Mauritian French Creole's la from a nominal definitivizer to a clitic marking NPs. Alain Kihm shows that reflexive markers derived from body parts in Guinea-Bissau Portuguese...