Expansion of the lexicon

Morphological change
 Objectives

 By the end of this class, you should be able to

 Explain word-formation processes in Caribbean
languages
 Give examples from Caribbean English and at least one
other Caribbean language
 Compare and contrast borrowing and calquing
Creation of new words
Review of previous discussion

 Derivation
 Addition of affixes
 Grenada un- + mount > unmount ‘dismantle’
 Antg./Jmca manner + -s + -able > mannersable ‘well-behaved’
 Bdos scabies + -ical > scabical ‘dirty, loose’
 Compounding
 Combination of two free morphemes
 pan + music > pan-music
 cheese + straws > cheese straws
 salt + bread > salt bread
Other ways of creating new words

 Zero-derivation
 Also known as conversion
 we can air a TV/radio programme
 Bdos/Belz/Jmca/T&T grater ‘to grate’
 Bdos, WCar duppy ‘false, misleading,
comical, of low status’
 Guyn/Jmca/Tbgo sick ‘make ill’
 Amending existing words

 Reanalysis
 Changing or inventing morpheme boundaries
 Can happen between words too, e.g. in Standard English:

an ewt

a n apperon
 Caribbean English examples
 anansi > a Nancy,
 Belz tamal + es > tamale + s
 Back-formation: Guyana aid-donor > aid-don + -ing
 Reanalysis in French creoles
 French creoles do this a lot (!) with their nouns
 Fr. la lune ‘the moon’ > Martinican lalin ‘moon’
 Fr. la basse ‘the shoal’ > Grenadian labas ‘open air
dump’  Some of this is due
 Fr. l’auto ‘the car’ > Guadeloupean loto ‘car’ to structure of
 Fr. dans bois ‘in the forest’ > Guianese danbwa
French, in which
‘forest’ the grammatical
 Fr. des oranges ‘oranges’ > St Lucian zowanj
word and the
‘oranges’ phonological word
 Fr. ma commère ‘my co-godmother’ > Trinidadian
(in the phonology
makommè ‘co-godmother, friend’ sense) are not
 Fr. mon père ‘my father’ > Haitian monpè ‘priest’
always the same
 Fr. une âme ‘a soul’ > Karipúna nàm ‘soul’
 Fr. un homme ‘a man’ > Dominican nonm ‘man’
Other ways of creating new words

 Folk etymology: changing a word to replace an unfamiliar or less

sensible part with a familiar or more sensible one
 sempervive > simple-bible ‘aloes’
 pond-fly > palm-fly
 wood-slave > white-slave
 Ka i'so (Efik ‘go on’) > kali'so > ca'lypso by analogy with Greek island nymph
named Calypso
 haphazard ‘unexpectedly’ > Gren happosite ‘unexpectedly’ by analogy with
opposite (to expectation)
 Speculation: W. Afr bumbo ‘buttocks’ > Bdos bumpa
 I have even seen a Jamaican student
write:
 Clipping: cutting off part of a word
 defraud > Antg fraud (v.)
 Rastafarian > Rasta
 sarcasm > Crcu, Nevs scasm ‘bad-talk’
 Other ways of creating new words

 Blending: mixing parts of more than one word

 Belz/Guyn/Jmca mandarin + tangerine > mangerine ‘type of citrus fruit’
 soul + calypso > soca
 Jmca emancipation + independence > emancipendence ‘the period of time
from Emanicipation Day (1 Aug.) to Independence Day (6 Aug).’
 Acronyms: words formed from the initials of another word
 Leeward Islands Air Transport > LIAT
 Caribbean Community > CARICOM
 Initialisms: acronym pronounced letter by letter
 Barbados Labour Party > BLP
 party in power > PIP ‘supporter of whoever is in power’
 Backronym: word given an acronymic structure after it has been created
 LIME = Landline, Internet, Mobile, Entertainment
 Other ways of creating new words
 Reduplication: A repetition of the sounds of a word
 Among Caribbean languages, reduplication is principally a feature of Creoles
 Full (sometimes found in non-Creole languages)
 nough ‘a lot’ > nough-nough ‘profuse(ly)’
 big > big-big ‘wishing to appear important for no reason’
 she > she-she ‘gay man, esp. effeminate’
 shot > Saban English shot-shot ‘lily whose seeds are used in slingshots’
 Grenadian FrCr touf ‘clump; cluster’ > touf-touf ‘short, stocky man’
 Partial (only found in some basilectal creoles, and rarely)
 Ndyuka koti ‘cut’ > ko-koti ‘ornamental scars’
 Sranan sibi ‘sweep’ > si-sibi ‘broom’
 Ablaut
 French Creole krik krak (introduction to story), vip vap ‘pow! whack!’, bligidi
blogodo ‘bradarax bruggadung’
 Rhyming
 Habra, Dabra and the crew
 Baha hully-gully ‘(of a young man) rough in appearance by choice’
 ecky-becky
Other ways of creating new words

 Coinage: word invented with no relationship to any

existing word
 e.g. Standard English Kodak
 NEVER call something a coinage unless you have a
source that states that the word has no relationship to
any existing word
 DO NOT use coinage or coin to describe the creation of
any new word except for this specialised meaning
 Foreign sources

 Borrowing (loanword): a lexeme

from one language incorporated
into a different one
 mangosteen, roti, maco, wunna,
Barbados, hurricane
 Calque (loan translation): translating
the parts of a foreign lexeme
 bad-talk < Yoruba sọrọburuku ‘say
evil word’
 FrCr langann-anwo ‘acrolect (lit.
‘language above’)’ < French acrolecte
 Where has Caribbean English
borrowed from?

 European colonial languages: French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese

 African languages
 The exact sources for borrowings are rarely known, due to poor
documentation of enslaved people’s origins and poor knowledge of
contemporary and historical African languages
 Mainly West African languages, like Twi, Yoruba, Hausa, KiKongo, Wolof
 South Asian languages: Bhojpuri, Hindustani
 Amerindian languages: Carib, Taino, Tupi
 Frequently entered through other European languages, esp. Spanish
 Creole languages: French Creoles (Dominica, St Lucia, Grenada,
Trinidad), English Creoles (throughout)
 We’ll see more about these in the coming weeks
Expanding the lexicon in other
Caribbean languages
 Borrowings and calques in other
Caribbean languages
 Spanish
 From French
 canevá ‘canvas’ < canevas ‘canvas (material)’ (Cuba)
 bullón ‘stock pot’ < bouillon ‘broth' (Cuba)
 marchante ‘merchant’ < marchand ‘merchant’ (Cuba)
 sirop ‘simple syrup for cold drinks’ (Drep, PtRc)
 habitación ‘plantation’ < habitation (DRep, 18th c)
 habitante ‘plantation resident’ < habitant (DRep, 18th c)
 algodonería ‘cotton factory’ < cotonerie (DRep, 18th c)
 Note that this is a calque, with algodón being the translation of French coton
 From English
 postre de queso ‘cheesecake’
 drycleaner (DRep., Hond.)
 doggy bag (PtRc)
 diamante (CarA) ‘diamond (in baseball)’
 quilitique (PtRc) ‘pesticide for ticks’ < kill tick
Borrowings and calques in other
Caribbean languages

 From French Creoles

 pititorti ‘Colombian slider turtle’ (DRep, 18th c) < piti torti
‘small turtle’
 sipón ‘skirt, slip’ (DRep) < Haitian zipon
 fulá ‘kerchief’ (DRep) < Haitian foula
 dolín ‘anger’ (DRep) < Haitian dolè ‘pain’
 bomba ‘gasoline can’ (DRep) < Haitian bonm ‘kettle’
 congrí ‘biracial meeting; rice with beans’ (Cuba) < Haitian
kongrè ‘convention, meeting’
 Some lexical innovations in
Caribbean Spanish
 Derivation
 prietusco ‘blackish’ (Guat, DRep) < prieto ‘dark brown’
 truquear ‘to cheat or trick’ < truco ‘trick’
 abejonear ‘buzz, whisper’ < abejón ‘bumblebee’
 contentura ‘contentedness’ < contento ‘content’
 Conversion
 memoriar ‘make memories’ < memoria ‘memory’
 turistar ‘to tour’ < turista ‘tourist’
 Some lexical innovations in
Caribbean Spanish

 Clipping
 fabu < fabuloso ‘fabulous’
 migra < migración ‘migration’
 Reduplication
 abur-abur ‘bye-bye’ (DRep) < abur ‘bye’
 Blending
 microfoniático ‘microphone hog’ < micrófono
‘microphone’ + maniático ‘maniac’
 Some lexical innovations in
Surinamese Dutch

 Derivation
 kokoskoekje ‘coconut drop(cake)’ – kokoskoek ‘sugar cake’ + -je
(diminutive suffix)
 Compounding
 marktbeheerder – markt ‘market’+ beheerder ‘administrator’ = market
manager, “overseer of the market which is also in charge of designating
the sites and collecting state funds”
 slaapjurk ‘nightgown’ – slaap ‘sleep’ + jurk ‘dress’
 Acronyms
 mulo – Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs ‘More Extended Primary
Education’
 Clipping
 bemoei ‘nosy, curious’– clipping of bemoeizuchtig ‘nosy, curious’
 Mulo – clipping of muloschool ‘extended primary school’
 Some lexical innovations in
Caribbean French
 Blends:
 négropolitain (blend of nègre ‘black’ and métropolitain ‘from mainland France') ‘an
Antillean/Guianese person born or raised in France; Afro-Saxon’
 negxagonal (blend of nègre ‘black’ and hexagonal ‘from mainland France’) id.
 Conversion
 Noëler ‘celebrate Christmas’ (Noël ‘Christmas’ + infinitive suffix)
 baygonner ‘spray pesticide’ (Baygon ‘(brand of insecticide)’ + infinitive suffix)
 soi-disant ‘supposedly’ (soi-disant ‘supposed, putative, so-called’)
 Derivation
 noirceur ‘darkness, blackness’ (noir ‘black’ + -eur ‘-ness’)
 travaillant ‘active, industrious’ (travaille ‘work’ + -ant ‘-ing’)
 Saint Barth: ameneuse ‘woman who brings bride to wedding’ (amener ‘lead’ + -euse ‘-ess’)
 Saint Barth: démâter ‘to take down the mast’ (dé - ‘de-, un-’ + mât ‘mast’)
 Compounding
 Bondieu ‘God’ (bon ‘good’ + dieu ‘god’)
 bête-longue ‘snake’ (bête ‘animal’ + longue ‘long’)
 sans-pied ‘dodder, love-vine’ (sans ‘without’ + pied ‘foot, tree’)
 Saint Barth: amener-mounter ‘bring up, bring over’ (amener ‘lead’ + mounter
‘bring up’
 Borrowings from other colonial
powers
 French
 From English
 donquin ‘plant used as a switch’ < dumb cane
 Ant. cheetah ‘monkey’ < Cheetah ‘ape from Tarzan’
 Fr.Gui. blada ‘buddy’ < brother
 St Barth danqui ‘donkey’
 St Barth deck-house ‘cabin in the aft of a boat’
 From Spanish
 Fr.Gui. cassave ‘cassava pone’ < casava
 bagasse ‘leftover fibers from sugar cane processing’ < bagás
 Note that this word started as a French word bagage ‘stuff’
 Class business

 Course representative
 Tutorial feedback