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226 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 62, NUMBER 1 (1986) claimed that the striking syntactic paraUels in the Atlantic creóles of various lexical bases result not from a common African substratum, but rather from an innate 'bioprogram' for the acquisition of certain universal language features, as posited by D. Bickerton, Roots oflanguage (Ann Arbor: Karoma, 1981). In his 1984 LSA presentation, Bickerton noted that 'No substratum argument has ever suppUed any ... systematic and detailed comparison between substratum structures and the creóle structures supposed to have been derived from them.' But the present work does exactly that. In the most thorough, systematic, and detailed such study yet attempted, Atlantic creóles of various lexical bases—of Principe (Portuguese), Surinam (EngUsh), and Haiti (French), with additional data from NegerhoUands (Dutch), Papiamentu (Spanish/Portuguese), and Krio (EngUsh)—are compared with a number of Niger-Congo languages typical ofthose claimed to constitute the creóles' substratum: Ewe, Mandingo, Igbo, Yoruba , Akan, etc. Boretzky has been largely successful in achieving his goal. The obstacles are formidable , calling for many different kinds ofexpertise unükely to be found in any single scholar— whether creoUst, Africanist, historian, or historical linguist. First, the many languages involved have not aU been equally weU described. However, B is cautious in weighing evidence, and seems alert to the possible pitfaUs in his primary sources. Second, it is African languages of the 16th and 17th centuries that are claimed to have played a role in the formation of the creóles; but the descriptions available to us are almost aU from the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet, from what we know about the changes that have taken place in other languages during a comparable lapse of time, the modern forms of the African languages are stiU likely to teU us a great deal about their earher forms. Finally, with so many languages involved, there is always the problem of simUarities arising through coincidence . B's control group consists of some nonAtlantic pidgins and creóles with different substrata: Melanesian Pidgin EngUsh, Mauritian Creole French, and the Spanish creóles of the Phüippines. It speaks weU for his method that only the Mauritian data yield unsuspected affinities with West African structures, particularly in the verb phrase—which leads him to speculate that there was some historical connection , still not properly understood (p. 251). This is in fact the thesis ofP. Baker & C. Corne, Isle de France Creole (Ann Arbor: Karoma, 1982), to which B did not have access: Mauritian evidences 'a West African substratal influence' (122), indicating 'typological identity with the Atlantic creóles' (127). B's introduction outlines the major theoretical models which creoUsts have used to put substrate studies in a broader context. Unfortunately , there is not enough discussion of substrate influence itself, leaving a need for a clearer picture of B's own theoretical model. There is also Uttle discussion of the historical factors that led him to examine the languages he did; instead, he lets the linguistic material speak for itself. The body of the work consists of a systematic comparison of the data by linguistic level. First the creóle forms of a particular feature are discussed, then the West African; finally both are summarized and compared. The section on phonolgy (49-68) includes a comparison ofvowel inventories, nasal vowels, vowel harmony, consonant clusters, palatalization, /l~x/ alternation, and tone. The brief discussion of morphology (69-83) is confined largely to syUable structure rules and word formation. The section on syntax is divided into two parts: one is a comparison of grammatical categories (84-143) including gender, number, case, possession, deixis, determiners, negation, comparison, personal pronouns, tense, aspect, and modality. The second part (144-219) is on the syntactic functions of noun phrases, adjectives , pronouns, verbs, serial verbs, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions, as weU as subordination and topicaUzation. The concluding section (267-90) is a general discussion of the Creoles and language change. There is also a nine-page bibüography and a very helpful 17page index of topics, authors, and words. This book draws on a considerable number of substrate studies, but no other is so ambitious and systematic. It is to be hoped that there will be...

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