Ghanaian Pidgin English In Its West African Context: A Sociohistorical And Structural Analysis (varieties Of English Around The World)

This first published full-scale study of the Ghanaian variety of West African Pidgin English (GhaPE) makes extensive use of hitherto neglected historical material and provides a synchronic account of GhaPE’s structure and sociolinguistics. Special focus is on the differences between GhaPE and other West African Pidgins, in particular the development of, and interrelations between, the different varieties of restructured English in West Africa, from Sierra Leone to Cameroon. This monograph further includes an overview of the history of Afro-European contact languages in Lower Guinea with special emphasis on the Gold Coast; an outline of the settlement of Freetown, Sierra Leone, with a description of how and when the transplantation of Sierra Leonean Krio to other West African countries took place; an analysis of the linguistic evidence for the origin, development, and spread of restructured Englishes on the Lower Guinea Coast; an account of the different varieties of GhaPE and their sociolinguistic status in the contemporary linguistic ecology of Ghana; as well as a comprehensive structural description of the “uneducated” variety of GhaPE. The book is accompanied by a CD-ROM which contains illustrative material such as spoken GhaPE and photographs. VEAW G24 GHANAIAN PIDGIN ENGLISH IN ITS WEST AFRICAN CONTEXT A SOCIOHISTORICAL AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS 1 Editorial page 2 Title page 3 Copyright page 4 Table of contents 7 Acknowledgements 11 Abbreviations 13 1. Introduction 19 1.1 Ghana 20 1.2 Previous studies on Ghanaian Pidgin English 20 1.3 A note on the data used in the present study 22 1.4 Scope of the work 24 2. A sociohistorical account of Pidgins on the Gold Coast 27 2.1 The period of Portuguese dom inance, 1470-1600 28 2.1.1 The nature of Afro-Portuguese contact on the Gold Coast 29 2.1.2 Early restructured Portuguese in West Africa 32 2.1.2.1 Evidence from early travel accounts: the Lingua Franca connection? 33 2.1.2.2 Early West African Pidgin Portuguese: linguistic data 37 2.1.2.3 The use of Pidgin Portuguese after the period of Portuguese dominance 45 2.1.2.4 Summary: early West African Pidgin Portuguese as a trade jargon 48 2.2 The arrival of the Dutch and English in the 17th century 49 2.2.1 The conditions of Afro-European coexistence in pre-colonial Lower Guinea 51 2.2.2 Early restructured English on the Gold Coast 58 2.2.3 The users of early restructured English on the Gold Coast 62 2.2.3.1 Free Africans in periodic contact with anglophone traders 63 2.2.3.2 Africans in the service of whites 69 2.2.3.3 The mulattos 72 2.3 Summary: early West African Pidgins as jargons 75 3. Excursus: The settlementof the Sierra Leone peninsula, 1787-1850 77 3.1 The main settler groups 77 3.1.1 The Original Settlers 77 3.1.2 The Nova Scotians 79 3.1.3 The Jamaican Maroons 81 3.1.4 The Liberated Africans 81 3.2 Other population groups 83 3.2.1 Europeans, indigenous Africans, and others 83 3.2.2 The Krumen 84 3.3 The linguistic ecology of early Sierra Leone colony society 88 4. The origin and development of West African Pidgin Englishes: linguistic data 93 4.1 Earliest and most recent attestations of selected WAPE features 94 4.1.1 Notes on the features 104 4.1.1.1 Copular space 104 4.1.1.2 Verb Phrase 110 4.1.1.3 Noun Phrase 114 4.1.1.4 Lexical and functional items 115 4.1.2 Classifying the features: Krio (class 1) and WAPE (class 3) items 123 4.1.3 Items independently attested in Krio and the WAPEs (class 2) 123 4.2 Calculating affinities between restructured Englishes in West Africa and the New World 125 4.2.1 The transmission of Krio features in West Africa 137 4.3 Atlantic and beyond: Pacific Pidgin Englishes and "Traders' English " 147 4.3.1 The nature of early English overseas jargon 150 4.3.1.1 Processes determining the inclusion of features 150 4.3.1.2 The geographical components of Traders' English 151 5. The sociolinguistics of Ghanaian Pidgin English 153 5.1 The languages of Ghana 153 5.2 Ghanaian Pidgin English 157 5.2.1 Uneducated/non-institutionalized Pidgin 159 5.2.1.1 Uneducated Pidgin: a case study 160 5.2.2 Educated/institutionalized Pidgin: secondary schools and universities 165 5.2.2.1 Postscript: the spread of educated GhaPE 169 5.2.2.2 Other institutionalized varieties 170 5.2.3 Jargon 171 5.3 Uses, function, and stigmatization of Pidgin in Ghana 172 6. A synchronic-structural description of Ghanaian Pidgin English 183 6.1 Phonology 184 6.1.1 Segmental phonology 184 6.1.1.1 Consonants 185 6.1.1.2 Vowels 187 6.1.1.3 Syllable structure 188 6.1.2 Common phonological processes 190 6.1.2.1 /n/-dropping and compensatory nasalization 190 6.1.2.2 Dealveolanzation 191 6.1.2.3 Syllable simplification 192 6.1.2.4 Devoicing of final consonants 193 6.1.2.5 Linking consonants 193 6.1.3 Transcription conventions 194 6.2 Basic sentence types 194 6.2.1 Declarative sentences 194 6.2.2 Interrogative sentences 195 6.2.2.1 Yes-no questions 195 6.2.2.2 Question-word questions 196 6.2.3 Imperative sentences 198 6.3 Subordination 198 6.3.1 Relativization 198 6.3.2 Clefting 203 6.3.3 Se-complementization 206 6.4 The noun phrase 208 6.4.1 Articles 208 6.4.2 Pronouns 211 6.4.2.1 Demonstratives 211 6.4.2.2 Subject personal pronouns 213 6.4.2.3 Object personal pronouns 216 6.4.2.4 Possessive pronouns 218 6.4.2.5 Reflexive pronouns 219 6.4.2.6 Indefinite pronouns 220 6.4.3 Nouns 221 6.4.3.1 Number 221 6.4.3.2. Negation 224 6.4.3.3 noun + bound pronoun constructions 225 6.4.3.4 Possessive noun phrase constructions 228 6.4.4 Prepositions and expression of spatial relationships 229 6.5 The verb phrase 233 6.5.1 Quasi-passive 233 6.5.2 Negation 233 6.5.3 Tense-Mood-Aspect 236 6.5.3.1 Tense 236 6.5.3.2 Mood 238 6.5.3.3 Aspect 243 6.5.3.4 Combinatorial possibilities 245 6.5.4 Stative and active verbs 247 6.5.4.1 Lexifier adjectives as GhaPE stative verbs 249 6.5.4.2 Copulas 252 6.5.5 Serial verb constructions 254 6.5.6 Reduplication and repetition 258 6.5.6.1 Tonal behaviour of reduplicated elements 260 6.5.6.2 Repetition 264 6.6 Focus, topicalization, and emphasis 265 6.6.1 Focus 265 6.6.2 Topicalization and emphasis 266 7. Conclusion 271 Appendices 275 A. References to Portuguese and "Lingua Franca" as early West African contact languages 275 B. Portuguese-derived words in use on the Gold Coast 284 C. A chronological list identifying data sources of Table 4.1 287 D. Ghanaian Pidgin English texts 289 1. Spoken texts 289 2. Written texts 301 References 305 Name and subject index 323 The CD: system requirements 337 This study is an updated revision of the author's PhD dissertation. It undertakes to produce a synchronic structural and sociolinguistical account of Ghanaian pidgin English, taking into account its historical relation to other West African versions. Much of the study is based on primary sources.