The Syntax and Semantics of a Determiner System: A case study of Mauritian Creole

Abstract

This volume is the first to explore the syntax and semantics of a creole nominal system within a minimalist framework and a formal semantics. The quantificational approach provides evidence that the occurrence of bare nouns in Mauritian Creole (MC) resulted from the loss of the operators such as the French definite article, copula, and case assigning prepositions. These changes triggered a shift in noun denotation, from predicative in French to argumental in MC, and account for the gradual emergence of a new determiner system. The theoretical contributions of this work include the analysis of definiteness and specificity as distinct categories of meaning, and the proposal that specificity marking is a morphosyntactic requirement in languages that lack a definite article. The detailed diachronic and synchronic analyses of data from the mid 18th century onwards constitutes a significant independent contribution to the study of MC for creolists, formal linguists, and variationists alike.