Monday, 17 February 2014
Gold Coast (Hyatt Regency Chicago)
Creole languages may arise when languages in contact are mixed. The selection of features has long been seen as rich evidence for universals in language. But how do the features get selected and why do some features get selected (or disfavored) over others? We investigate the case of Cape Verdean Creole showing how morphological similarity and functional overlap between elements in multiple source languages collaborated to the development of this new language.