Graham, William Ross 1997

Graham, William Ross. 1997. Bay Islands English: Linguistic Contact and Convergence in the Western Caribbean. Ann Arbor: Gainesville: University of Florida dissertation. (616pp.) (Includes bibliographical references (S. 598-614), 616pp.)

@phdthesis{147879,
  address               = {Ann Arbor},
  author                = {Graham, William Ross},
  note                  = {Includes bibliographical references (S. 598-614)},
  pages                 = {616},
  publisher             = {UMI},
  school                = {Gainesville: University of Florida},
  title                 = {Bay Islands English: Linguistic Contact and Convergence in the Western Caribbean},
  year                  = {1997},
  abstract              = {Bay Islands English (BIE) is the name given to the varieties of the English language natively spoken on the islands of that name lying off the north coast of Honduras. The original data is derived from nine months of fieldwork conducted on the three islands of Roatan, Utila and Guanaja, between 1991 and 1992. A word-list supplemented by fieldnotes supplies the raw data for chapters on phonemics and other aspects of pronunciation. Transcripts of 25 interviews and field observations likewise form the basis for accounts of the syntax of the Verb Phrase and the morphosyntax of the Noun Phrase, as well as detailed quantitative studies of the copula and verbal-s marking. It is argued that BIE originates in the eighteenth century contact between blacks and whites living on the Cayman Islands. Whites spoke a koineized dialect with some creole influence: this is referred to as 'earlier Anglo-Caribbean'. Caymanians settled on the Bay Islands in the mid-nineteenth century. The abundance of creole features in black BIE make it clear that the speech of least a segment of the immigrant population was of the type generally accepted as 'creole'. Today, black BIE is 'mesolectal'. The much lower incidence of such features in white BIE indicates that Anglo-Caribbean was never creolized. A number of non-standard elements in white BIE can be traced to older British dialectal influence; in this, Scottish dialects played an important role, as is suggested by the existence of a strong Subject-type constraint with plural 'is'. Prolonged contact between the polar grammars has produced a large area of convergence, in which forms and structures from the non-standard superstrate are adapted to uses deriving from non-standard creole-influenced grammar, for example, in the use of past markers such as had and been. It is argued that the preverbal habitual marker doz was early adopted by blacks, influenced by periphrastic do/does in earlier Anglo-Caribbean. The adoption of non-concord V-s as a habitual marker was an innovation within Anglo-Caribbean, perhaps motivated by a desire to avoid the stigmatized periphrastic habitual.},
  adviser               = {Burns, Allan},
  bestfn                = {eurasia\graham_convergence1997_o.pdf},
  besttxt               = {ptxt2\eurasia\graham_convergence1997_o.txt},
  cfn                   = {eurasia\graham_english1997_o.pdf},
  class_loc             = {PE3272},
  degree                = {PhD},
  delivered             = {eurasia\graham_english1997_o.pdf},
  digital_formats       = {PDF 23.00Mb image-only PDF},
  document_type         = {B},
  fn                    = {eurasia\graham_convergence1997_o.pdf, eurasia\graham_english1997_o.pdf, eurasia\graham_convergence1997.pdf, north_america\graham _english1997_o.pdf},
  hhtype                = {grammar},
  inlg                  = {English [eng]},
  isbn                  = {9780591762358},
  lgcode                = {Bay Islands English = English [eng]},
  macro_area            = {Eurasia},
  mpi_eva_library_shelf = {PE 3272 GRA 2007},
  mpifn                 = {english_graham1997_o.pdf},
  source                = {DAI-A 59/02, p. 470, Aug 1998},
  src                   = {hh, mpieva},
  subject               = {LANGUAGE, LINGUISTICS (0290); LANGUAGE, MODERN (0291)},
  subject_headings      = {English language – Honduras – Islas de la Bahía, English language – Dialects – Honduras – Islas de la Bahía, English language – Honduras – Islas de la Bahía – English language – Dialects – Honduras – Islas de la Bahía},
  umi_id                = {9824075}
}