Posters by Chiara Truppi
This study focuses on the copular item i in Kriyol (Portuguese based
creole of Guinea-Bissau, Wes... more This study focuses on the copular item i in Kriyol (Portuguese based
creole of Guinea-Bissau, West Africa) and its path of grammaticalization.
Copulas such as locative and stage-level (sta ‘to be, to stay’), modal (parsi ‘to seem’) and aspectual (bida ‘to become’) will not be taken into account here.
We intend to explore the emergence of written forms of formerly unwritten languages in two histor... more We intend to explore the emergence of written forms of formerly unwritten languages in two historically and geographically different multilingual settings: Guinea-Bissau Creole and Pennsylvania German.
Books by Chiara Truppi
Speakers and Structures in Language Contact: Pluralistic Approaches to Change and Variation, 2024
This book is a collection of innovative studies on language contact. It contains novel works on u... more This book is a collection of innovative studies on language contact. It contains novel works on unexplored issues related to language contact in different settings and aims to contribute multi-perspective insights to the current state of the art on language contact. Novel approaches to contact-related change, variation, attrition, and emergence of new varieties are explored from the lens of sociolinguistic, typological, synchronic, and diachronic perspectives. The contact settings vary from official and majority languages to minority, endangered and/or non-official varieties in different parts of the world.
Lives in Contact: A Tribute to Nine Fellow Creolinguists, 2019
Papers by Chiara Truppi
De Gruyter eBooks, Jul 8, 2024
Speakers and Structures in Language Contact: Pluralistic Approaches to Change and Variation, 2024
This chapter is an introduction to the topics dealt with in the volume "Speakers and structures i... more This chapter is an introduction to the topics dealt with in the volume "Speakers and structures in language contact: Pluralistic approaches to change and variation", which approaches a wide range of understudied language-contact settings and phenomena, and proposes novel and pluralistic approaches to their study. This introduction also aims to highlight the thread underlying the different chapters: language contact, often involved in language variation and change, allows speakers to cross the boundaries within and between languages. There is an intimate relationship between language boundaries and language contact, on the one hand, and between the latter and language variation and possible subsequent change, on the other hand. The existence of boundaries and the crossing of these — relying on the speakers' perception and action, respectively – is the ground for the encounter of languages. Language contact may (contribute to) trigger variation within a language, detectable on the synchronic axis, and the latter, over time — i.e., diachronically –, may yield to changes such as, e.g., grammaticalisation.
Speakers and Structures in Language Contact: Pluralistic Approaches to Change and Variation, 2024
The present chapter aims to discuss a combined methodology for linguistic reconstruction and to p... more The present chapter aims to discuss a combined methodology for linguistic reconstruction and to participate in the debate on the mechanisms involved in creole emergence. In particular, we will reconstruct the emergence of the paradigm of copulas (copularisation) in a group of Portuguese-related Atlantic creoles, i.e., Upper Guinea creoles, consisting of Capeverdean, (Bissau-)Guinean, and Casamancese. These creoles are said to share a common ancestor, i.e., a proto-creole. The reconstruction of the copular system of the proto-creole will be carried out on the basis of the comparison of synchronic data from these languages, also taking into account data from 19th-century sources. Insights from research on second language acquisition, grammaticalisation studies, and substrate, adstrate and areal influences will integrate our methodology. In doing so, this chapter will propose a combined strategy for the
reconstruction of the proto-creole and will contribute to the debate on Upper Guinea creole emergence and, more broadly, language emergence.
Museu Virtual da Guiné-Bissau, 2021
This paper, published in the website "Museu Virtual da Guiné-Bissau" (currently under maintenance... more This paper, published in the website "Museu Virtual da Guiné-Bissau" (currently under maintenance), represents an introduction to Guinea-Bissau Kriol (Ginensi) and to the linguistic ecosystem that surrounds this language. It deals with both diachronic and synchronic aspects of the language. Furthermore, it offers a perspective on the presence and current vitality status of Atlantic and Mande languages spoken in the country. Finally, questions related to the literature production in Ginensi and to the standardization of the language are also dealt with.
The present paper aims to study the item i in Kriol, the Portuguese-based creole of Guinea-Bissau... more The present paper aims to study the item i in Kriol, the Portuguese-based creole of Guinea-Bissau. More specifically, i is 3SG subject pronoun and also functions as copula in individual-level predication. As a pronoun, i may also occur as resumptive to topic-comment structures. On the basis of the striking similarity between copular clauses with i and topic-comment structures with resumptive i, I will argue that the pronoun i and the copula i are not simple homophones, but represents two different syntactic functions of the very same item. I assume that the copula i derives from the resumptive pronoun i in topic-comment structures. This kind of grammaticalization of the pronoun into a copula, also known as copularization, is well documented in a number of languages. The main goal of the paper will be to reconstruct the path of grammaticalization of the copula i and to provide a syntactic account of it. I will follow Lohndal (2009) in assuming that this kind of grammaticalization, mo...
The paper aims to study nominal and locative predication in Upper Guinea Portuguese-related creol... more The paper aims to study nominal and locative predication in Upper Guinea Portuguese-related creoles and the West African languages, mentioned in the literature as substrate Mandinka, Wolof, and Temne and/or adstrate several Atlantic languages. We will look at three features that characterize the copular systems of Upper Guinea creoles: (i) the split between nominal and locative predication, (ii) nonverbal predication, and (iii) copulaless predication. The comparison of our findings in the Upper Guinea creoles and in the languages that contributed to their formation and/or to their further development will allow us to assess influences of the latter in the emergence of the predicational system of this group of creoles. Further outputs will be to show, on the one hand, the grammatical proximity of Upper Guinea creoles as to their predicational system and, on the other hand, to uncover possible commonalities and differences among the Atlantic languages.
Revista do GEL, 2021
Este artigo tem como objetivo o estudo da predicação nominal e locativa nos crioulos portugueses ... more Este artigo tem como objetivo o estudo da predicação nominal e locativa nos crioulos portugueses da Alta Guiné e nas línguas da África ocidental que têm sido referidas na literatura como línguas de substrato - Mandinka, Wolof e Temne - e/ou de adstrato - várias línguas atlânticas. Focar-nos-emos no estudo de três aspetos que caraterizam o sistema das cópulas dos crioulos da Alta Guiné: (i) a divisão entre predicação nominal e locativa, (ii) a predicação não-verbal e (iii) a predicação sem cópula. A comparação dos resultados nos crioulos da Alta Guiné e nas línguas que contribuíram para a sua formação e/ou para o seu subsequente desenvolvimento permitirá avaliar possíveis influências destas últimas na emergência do sistema predicativo destes crioulos. Resultados adicionais serão mostrar o nível de proximidade dos crioulos da Alta Guiné em relação ao seu sistema predicativo, e revelar possíveis semelhanças e diferenças entre as línguas atlânticas.
Journal of Ibero-Romance Creoles, 2019
The present paper aims to describe copulas in Kriyol from a semantic-syntactic perspective and to... more The present paper aims to describe copulas in Kriyol from a semantic-syntactic perspective and to compare them to copulas in the other Upper Guinea Creoles and certain substrate languages. We will show that in Kriyol the selection of the copula from the paradigm principally depends on two factors: i) the predicate type, and ii) the aspect and tense properties of the clause. The former is responsible for the split encoding of nominal and locative predication. In particular, the copula sta occurs with locative predicates, while we find several suppletive forms for nominal predication, each with its semantic-syntactic function, namely i, the null copula Ø, sedu, and (y)era. Aspect and tense play a crucial role in the selection of the copula with nominal predicates. Furthermore, we will compare Kriyol copulas to those used in the Santiago variety of Cape Verdean Creole and Casamancese Creole, as well as to copulas in Wolof (Atlantic) and Mandinka (Mande), which are mentioned in the lite...
The present paper aims to describe copulas in Kriyol from a semantic-syntactic perspective and to... more The present paper aims to describe copulas in Kriyol from a semantic-syntactic perspective and to compare them to copulas in the other Upper Guinea Creoles and certain substrate languages. We will show that in Kriyol the selection of the copula from the paradigm principally depends on two factors: i) the predicate type, and ii) the aspect and tense properties of the clause. The former is responsible for the split encoding of nominal and locative predication. In particular, the copula sta occurs with locative predicates, while we find several suppletive forms for nominal predication, each with its semantic-syntactic function, namely i, the null copula Ø, sedu, and (y)era. Aspect and tense play a crucial role in the selection of the copula with nominal predicates. Furthermore, we will compare Kriyol copulas to those used in the Santiago variety of Cape Verdean Creole and Casamancese Creole, as well as to copulas in Wolof (Atlantic) and Mandinka (Mande), which are mentioned in the lite...
Journal of Historical Syntax 5:1-13 (2021): Proceedings of the 20th Diachronic Generative Syntax (DiGS) Conference / DiGS20 special issue, 2021
The present paper aims to study the item i in Kriol, the Portuguese-related creole of Guinea-Biss... more The present paper aims to study the item i in Kriol, the Portuguese-related creole of Guinea-Bissau. More specifically, i is 3SG subject pronoun and also functions as copula in individual-level predication. As a pronoun, i may also occur as resumptive to topic-comment structures. On the basis of the striking similarity between copular clauses with i and topic-comment structures with resumptive i, I will argue that the pronoun i and the copula i are not simple homophones, but represent two different syntactic functions of the very same item. I assume that the copula i derives from the resumptive pronoun i in topic-comment structures. This kind of grammaticalization of the pronoun into a copula, also known as copularization, is well documented in a number of languages. The main goal of the paper will be to reconstruct the path of grammaticalization of the copula i and to provide a syntactic account of it. I will follow Lohndal (2009) in assuming that this kind of grammaticalization, motivated by the ambiguity caused by certain topic-comment structures with resumptive pronoun, corresponds to an economy-oriented structural change: the pronoun shifts from the
specifier to the head of the predication phrase (PredP). This shift is part
of the type of structural changes described as copula cycle (see e.g. van
Gelderen 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2015; Lohndal 2009). Given that 3SG i is arguably a subject clitic and cannot sit in the specifier of PredP, I will argue, on the basis of Kihm’s (2007) paper, that in the proto-creole that gave rise to Kriol and the other Upper Guinea creoles there was a 3SG nonclitic pronoun *ele. It occurred as resumptive to topic-comment structures and was later reanalysed as a copula.
Journal of Ibero-Romance Creoles 9.1 (2019), JIRC, 2019
The present paper aims to describe copulas in Kriyol from a semantic-syntactic perspective and to... more The present paper aims to describe copulas in Kriyol from a semantic-syntactic perspective and to compare them to copulas in the other Upper Guinea Creoles and certain substrate languages. We will show that in Kriyol the selection of the copula from the paradigm principally depends on two factors: i) the predicate type, and ii) the aspect and tense properties of the clause. The former is responsible for the split encoding of nominal and locative predication. In particular, the copula sta occurs with locative predicates, while we find several suppletive forms for nominal predication, each with its semantic-syntactic function, namely i, the null copula Ø, sedu, and (y)era. Aspect and tense play a crucial role in the selection of the copula with nominal predicates. Furthermore, we will compare Kriyol copulas to those used in the Santiago variety of Cape Verdean Creole and Casamancese Creole, as well as to copulas in Wolof (Atlantic) and Mandinka (Mande), which are mentioned in the literature as substrate languages of the Upper Guinea proto-creole. On the basis of similarities among these languages, we will argue that Wolof and Mandinka influenced the emergence of UGC system of copulas.
Thesis Chapters by Chiara Truppi
Humboldt-Universität , 2015
The nature of the present dissertation is threefold: i) descriptive, ii) comparative, and iii) th... more The nature of the present dissertation is threefold: i) descriptive, ii) comparative, and iii) theoretical. After a brief general discussion on the history and grammar of Guinea-Bissau Creole, and after an extensive review of various approaches on BNPs, both from the semantic and syntactic perspective, the present work will offer an exhaustive description of the distribution and interpretation of Bare Noun Phrases in GBC. They may be found in both argument and nonargument positions. The general tendency for BNPs in GBC is to yield a definite reading (subjects, recipient objects, in topicalizion, dislocation and clefting). One difference is that bare patient objects may yield any possible interpretation, except from the specific plural. BNPs interpretation is driven by contextual factors as well as by aspect and predicate type. Perfective and continuous imperfective contexts trigger definite specific readings for bare objects. One difference is that bare objects in habitual imperfective contexts yield indefinite nonspecific interpretations. As for predicate types, bare subjects of stage-level predicates yield existential readings, whereas bare subjects of individual-level predicates derive definite generic readings. The present work also undertakes a crosslinguistic comparison between creoles and noncreoles: i) Cape Verdean Creole, Santome, Papiamentu and Brazilian Portuguese; and ii) Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese and Gbe languages. It turns out that BNPs distribution and interpretation are quite homogeneous. Importantly, BNPs in any of these languages may yield both singular and plural readings: BNPs are thus unspecified as for Number. This leads us to our theoretical discussion on Number: starting from Depréz’s (2007) Plural Parameter and its basic assumptions (e.g. BNPs are unspecified as for Number, and the basic denotation of nouns is kind of type e), a new model, and the consequent linguistic typology, is developed.
Talks by Chiara Truppi
This paper, presented at a meeting of the project LABEX-EFL (16th April 2021) aims to describe co... more This paper, presented at a meeting of the project LABEX-EFL (16th April 2021) aims to describe copular clauses in Guinea-Bissau Kriol (Ginensi) in both main and subordinate clauses. In particular, the criteria underlying the copula selection in main and subordinate clauses will be dealt with.
This is a study of copular clauses in Guinea-Bissau Kriol (Guinean/Ginensi) and of related syntac... more This is a study of copular clauses in Guinea-Bissau Kriol (Guinean/Ginensi) and of related syntactic and semantic aspects. It aims to answer to the following questions: (i) Does the taxonomy of copular clauses apply to the case of Guinean? (ii) How does the semantics cope with the syntax? Do the semantic properties of the subject and complement of copular clauses affect the syntactic structure? (iii) Do substrate/adstrate languages have any influence on the syntactic behavior of copular clauses in GN?
This study, presented at the "Workshop on adverbial clauses in pidgin and creole languages" (4th ... more This study, presented at the "Workshop on adverbial clauses in pidgin and creole languages" (4th October 2023, Göttingen), represents an introduction to subordination in Guinea-Bissau Kriol (Ginensi). It mainly focuses on adverbial clauses, their subtypes, and their specific complementizers (or subordinators).
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Posters by Chiara Truppi
creole of Guinea-Bissau, West Africa) and its path of grammaticalization.
Copulas such as locative and stage-level (sta ‘to be, to stay’), modal (parsi ‘to seem’) and aspectual (bida ‘to become’) will not be taken into account here.
Books by Chiara Truppi
Papers by Chiara Truppi
reconstruction of the proto-creole and will contribute to the debate on Upper Guinea creole emergence and, more broadly, language emergence.
specifier to the head of the predication phrase (PredP). This shift is part
of the type of structural changes described as copula cycle (see e.g. van
Gelderen 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2015; Lohndal 2009). Given that 3SG i is arguably a subject clitic and cannot sit in the specifier of PredP, I will argue, on the basis of Kihm’s (2007) paper, that in the proto-creole that gave rise to Kriol and the other Upper Guinea creoles there was a 3SG nonclitic pronoun *ele. It occurred as resumptive to topic-comment structures and was later reanalysed as a copula.
Thesis Chapters by Chiara Truppi
Talks by Chiara Truppi
creole of Guinea-Bissau, West Africa) and its path of grammaticalization.
Copulas such as locative and stage-level (sta ‘to be, to stay’), modal (parsi ‘to seem’) and aspectual (bida ‘to become’) will not be taken into account here.
reconstruction of the proto-creole and will contribute to the debate on Upper Guinea creole emergence and, more broadly, language emergence.
specifier to the head of the predication phrase (PredP). This shift is part
of the type of structural changes described as copula cycle (see e.g. van
Gelderen 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2015; Lohndal 2009). Given that 3SG i is arguably a subject clitic and cannot sit in the specifier of PredP, I will argue, on the basis of Kihm’s (2007) paper, that in the proto-creole that gave rise to Kriol and the other Upper Guinea creoles there was a 3SG nonclitic pronoun *ele. It occurred as resumptive to topic-comment structures and was later reanalysed as a copula.
We will provide an overview of the paradigm of copulas in Kriyol and we will look at intralinguistic variation in the occurrence of copulas. A brief comparison with the other UGCs will be undertaken. Finally, we will discuss superstrate vs. substrate influences and we will address the diachronic perspective.