The emergence of hybrid grammars: A rejoinder to Peter Bakker
enoch aboh2017, <i>WORD</i>
Peter Bakker's review of my book The emergence of hybrid grammars: Language contact and change, published in Word 62, 4. 228-243, amounts to a catalogue of misrepresentations and misconceptions of the positions I developed there. These claim 12 of his 14-page review. In what follows, I first summarize the hypotheses I developed in the book, intended now for those who have not read it yet, and then I expose Bakker's inability or unwillingness to interpret the book accurately and critique it competently. 1. The emergence of hybrid grammars: background information and clarification In the abstract of his review, Bakker writes: Creoles are seen as a result of failed acquisition. It is shown in the article that Bantu speakers were more numerous than Gbe speakers, on the basis of historical, genetic and linguistic evidence. Still, Bantu languages are structurally quite different from the creoles, which can be taken for an argument that Gbe as well only had a minimal influence on the grammatical structures of the creoles. The analytic structures are argued in the article to be as diverse for creoles as they are for the Gbe languages. Some structures are found to be different in all three creoles and five varieties of Gbe. (228)
