The development of tense, mood and aspect markers in Mauritian Creole

Thesis

This thesis explores how Mauritian Creole’s tense, mood and aspect (TMA) markers have changed over time. The main aim is to provide a detailed historical account for the TMA markers: POU, VA, TI, FINN and PE. I analyse written records from Old (pre-1900), 20th Century and Modern (2000s) Mauritian, and break down the meanings of the markers into ‘features’ to establish prototypical or ‘canonical’ usages in each time period, based on Corbett’s canonical typology approach. I stress the importance of considering lexifier (French) and substrate languages (e.g. Niger-Congo & Bantu) as well as language-internal change as contributing factors to their development. The changes are investigated from a functional grammaticalization perspective, providing a cross-linguistically comparable framework to examine whether this micro approach to change corresponds with macro grammaticalization paths in the literature.

In addition to diachronic study, I use elicitation tasks (both online and in-person tasks) to investigate the synchronic usage of the markers. Through quantitative analysis, these results show whether tendencies observed in the historical analyses continue today. The main contribution of my thesis is the quantification and clarification of the features which make up the meaning of the TMA markers at different stages of their development, in some cases supporting established cross-linguistic patterns, such as imperfective drift (partly attested in PE), in others identifying unexpected developments, such as VA’s later possible obligation meaning in future expression.

Overall, I show that Mauritian’s TMA development is more complex and nuanced than expected from cross-linguistic grammaticalization paths. The micro approach taken in this thesis does not always align with the macro grammaticalization paths attested in the literature, and I suggest that polygrammaticalization may better account for the multifaceted nature of certain markers. Unexpected developments pose a challenge for theories of language change, which should be refined by taking into account the empirical evidence presented in this thesis.

Authors: Davidson, H

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-14ejape4m
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Subjects: Linguistics