Language bioprogram theory: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Linguistic theory of creole language innovations}}The '''language bioprogram theory''' or '''language bioprogram hypothesis'''<ref>See the Wiktionary entry for ''[[:wikt:bioprogram|bioprogram]].''</ref> ('''LBH''') is a theory arguing that the structural similarities between different [[creole language]]s cannot be solely attributed to their [[superstratum|superstrate]] and [[substratum (linguistics)|substrate]] languages. As articulated mostly by [[Derek Bickerton]],<ref>See {{Harvcoltxt|Bickerton|1981}}, {{Harvcoltxt|Bickerton|1983}} {{Harvcoltxt|Bickerton|1984}}, {{Harvcoltxt|Bickerton|1988}}, and {{Harvcoltxt|Bickerton|1991}}</ref> [[creolization]] occurs when the linguistic exposure of children in a community consists solely of a highly unstructured [[pidgin]]; these children use their innate language capacity to transform the pidgin, which characteristically has high syntactic variability,<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Bickerton|1983|p=116}}</ref> into a language with a highly structured grammar. As this capacity is universal, the grammars of these new languages have many similarities.

==Syntactic similarities==

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*Articles: [[definite article]] applied to specific and identified noun phrase, [[indefinite article]] applied to specific and newly asserted noun phrase, and zero for nonspecific noun phrase.{{Dubious |Talk articles|date=February 2017}}

*TMA ([[tense–modality–aspect]]) systems

*distinction of realized and unrealized [[Complement (linguistics)|complements]]

*relativization and subject-copying

*negation

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==Verbal system==

The verb [[grammatical conjugation|conjugation]] is typically close to an ideal tense–modality–aspect pattern. In this system, the absence or presence of auxiliary [[verb]]s indicateindicates tense (concurrent or anterior), modality (realis or irrealis) and aspect (punctual or progressive), and when present these auxiliaries occur in that order, and typically are based on similar meaning words in the pidgin or superstrate language. Thus anterior tense may be marked by words such as ''bin'' in [[English language|English]]-based creoles (from ''been''), or ''té'' in French-based creoles (from ''été''), a future or subjunctive tense may be marked by ''go'' (from English ''go'') or ''al'' (from French ''aller''), and a non-punctual (non-stative) aspect by a word such as ''stei'' (from English ''stay'').

{| class="wikitable"

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The above table demonstrates syntactic similarities of creole languages. Stative verbs are those that cannot form the [[nonpunctual aspect]]. According to Bickerton, all observed creole languages strictly follow a structure that has the anterior particle precede the irreal particle, and the irreal particle precede the nonpunctual particle, although in certain languages some compounded forms may be replaced by other constructions.

==Creole Prototype Theory==

[[John McWhorter|McWhorter]] contributed to the LBH with his Creole Prototype Theory, which argues that creoles exhibit some features that may be used to distinguish them from other languages without referring to the socio-historical dimension. According to {{Harvcoltxt|McWhorter|1992}}, creoles are much less likely than other languages:

#to use grammatical inflection via affixing,

#to develop productive, nontransparent derivational affixes, or

#to use tone to either mark lexical differences or as grammatical markers.

TheseThose features do not appear in creoles, because creoleswhich are relatively young languages, but they may appear later on in their grammars, asafter the languages changehad changed. HeMcWhorter doesclaims not claim that all creoles are ideal examples of the prototype, ratherbut that they exhibit varying degrees of conformity with the prototype.{{Citation needed|date=February 2008}}

==Proposed empirical study==

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|publisher = [[Cornell University Press]]

|___location = Ithaca

|isbn=9780801401732

|ref=RHall

}}

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|year=1986

|chapter=The Universalist and Substrate Hypotheses Complement One Another

|title=Substrata versus universalsUniversals in creoleCreole gensisGenesis

|place=Amsterdam

|publisher=Benjamins