Last update:
5 September 2010
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Deconstructing Creole
2007. xii, 292 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Hardbound
– In stock
978 90 272 2985 4 / EUR 115.00 / USD 173.00
e-Book
– Available from e-book platforms
Deconstructing Creole is a collection of studies aimed at critically assessing the idea of creole languages as a homogeneous structural type with shared and peculiar patterns of genesis. Following up on the critical discussion of notions of ‘creole exceptionalism’ as historical and ideological constructs, this volume tests the basic assumptions that underlie current attempts to present ‘creole structure’ as a special type, from typological as well as sociohistorical perspectives. The sum of the findings presented here suggests that careful empirical investigation of input varieties and contact environments can explain the structural output without recourse to an exceptional genesis scenario. Echoing calls to dissolve the notion of ‘creolization’ as a special diachronic process, this volume proposes that theoretically grounded approaches to the notions of simplicity, complexity, transmission, etc. do not warrant considering so-called ‘creole’ languages as a special synchronic type.
Table of contents
“It is clear that in a collection like the present, the idea of "deconstruction" in the sense of discovering, recognizing, and understanding the implicit assumptions and frameworks that from the basis for thought and belief can be followed only to a certain extent. Deconstructing Creole is an important volume, however, in that it is one of the first that engages in a much needed metaphorical discourse on Creole Studies. Hopefully this work will trigger further research that explores fuzzy boundaries within the field, raising questions about the age-old binary oppositions that often shape how Creoles are conceptualized. This collection should be a very welcome addition to the library of both scholars working on typological and grammatical issues in Creole Studies and those doing socio-historical research.”
Susanne Mühleisen, University of Bayreuth, in Sargasso 2007 8: 1
“This book will arouse controversy. [...] the time has come to reexamine, perhaps rethink some of the key notions of creole studies - including the issue of whether there really should be a creole studies - and this book is a landmark on the way to that.”
Subject classification |
Linguistics