From Noun to Name: definiteness marking in Modern Martinikè

Résumé 0

This article bears on two functional morphemes written l(a)- and lé and pronounced [l(a)] and [le] which have developed in Modern Martinikè as definiteness markers of a sort, alongside the better known enclitic definite determiner LA, which is common to all French-lexifier creoles (cf. Bernabé 1983, Gadelii 1997, Lefebvre 1998, Déprez 2007, Zribi-Hertz and Glaude 2007, Alleesaib 2012, a.o.). We shall argue that LA conveys "pragmatic definiteness", as defined by Loebner (1985, 2011), while l(a)- and lé form "semantically definite" DPs denoting individual terms in the manner of definite proper names. Since French--the lexifier language--ambiguously marks semantic and pragmatic definiteness by means of the same "definite article", and since the definite determiner in Gbe languages--a plausible substratic influence on Caribbean creoles--is restricted to pragmatic definiteness (cf. Aboh 2001), the fact that the grammar of Martinikè should have developed three distinct overt markers of definiteness is, incidentally, evidence that creolisation cannot be viewed as a "simplification" process, as claimed by McWhorter (2001).