John Victor Singler
Biographic Data
| ID | 184986 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John Victor Singler |
| GIVEN NAMES | John Victor |
| FAMILY NAME | Singler |
| SIGNATURE | SINGLER J V |
| AFFILIATIONS | New York University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 28 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Creolization in Context: Historical and Typological Perspectives
We provide a selective overview of the state of pidgin and creole language studies, with a focus on the different ways in which the question of creole genesis—especially of European-lexifier creoles—is approached: from the perspective of the demographics and periodization of the (early) life of the colonies and from the perspective of the role of typological concepts such as analyticity/syntheticity and simplicity/complexity in the mechanisms of …
Codeswitching in West Africa
This introduction to the International Journal of Bilingualism special issue on “Codeswitching in West Africa” is divided into three parts. The first part presents an overview of West Africa, with particular attention paid to the linguistic diversity and multilingualism that characterize the region. Multilingualism in the region obtains at both the societal and the individual level: as Dakubu ((1997). Korle meets the sea: A sociolinguistic histor…
The Status of Lexical Associations and the Obligatory Contour Principle in the Analysis of Tone Languages
Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1980), pp. 442-456
Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies
The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies
List of Abbreviations. 1 Introduction (Silvia Kouwenberg and John Victor Singler). Part I Properties of Pidgins and Creoles. 2 Atlantic Creole Syntax (Donald Winford). 3 Forging Pacific Pidgin and Creole Syntax: Substrate, Discourse, and Inherent Variability (Miriam Meyerhoff). 4 Pidgin and Creole Morphology (Terry Crowley). 5 Creole Phonology (Norval S. H. Smith). 6 Pidgins versus Creoles and Pidgincreoles (Peter Bakker). 7 Non-Indo-European Pid…
Samaná and Sinoe, Part I: Stalking the vernacular
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Samaná and Sinoe, Part II: Provenance
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Yes, but not in the Caribbean
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Children and creole genesis
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The ?linguistic? asylum interview and the linguist's evaluation of it, with special reference to applicants for Liberian political asylum in Switzerland
The ability of 'linguistic' asylum interviews to assess where an asylum applicant has been socialized rests on several factors. Relevant linguistic boundaries must be known, and they must be compatible with political borders. However, even if the circumstances are such that the relation of linguistic to national boundaries is not problematic, consistently reliable evaluation is possible only if the evaluator is trained in linguistics and knowledg…
The 'linguistic' asylum interview and the linguist's evaluation of it, with special reference to applicants for Liberian political asylum in Switzerland
The ability of 'linguistic' asylum interviews to assess where an asylum applicant has been socialized rests on several factors. Relevant linguistic boundaries must be known, and they must be compatible with political borders. However, even if the circumstances are such that the relation of linguistic to national boundaries is not problematic, consistently reliable evaluation is possible only if the evaluator is trained in linguistics and knowledg…
The case for politeness: Pronoun variation in co-ordinate NPs in object position in English
The use of the nominative 1sg pronouns in co-ordinate NPs in object position, most famously between you and I, has received much attention from prescriptivists and formal linguists, but it has never been the object of a variationist study that compares its usage to that of other variants. This article seeks to fill the gap, based on a data set of co-ordinate NPs in object position, gathered through observation of everyday speech as well as in exp…
John Victor Singler in response to Derek Bickerton
What's Not New in Aave
Depuis plus de 10 ans, une question centrale dans l'etude de l'anglais vernaculaire afro-americain (AVAA) a ete de determiner dans quelle mesure il converge avec et/ou diverge des langues vernaculaires blanches americaines. Pour etablir la divergence de l'AVAA, il est necessaire de montrer que non seulement il possede un grand nombre de traits que l'on ne trouve pas dans d'autres langues vernaculaires americaines, mais aussi que ces traits repres…
The Configuration of Liberia's Englishes
Liberian English,' the non-standard English-lexifier speech of Liberia, can be divided into three varieties: Kru Pidgin English, spoken by Kru mariners and migrant workers; Settler English, spoken by descendants of nineteenth-century African American immigrants to Liberia; and Vernacular Liberian English, spoken by the rest of Liberia's English-speaking population. An examination of 21 speakers of putatively basilectal and lower-mesolectual Verna…
An OT Account of Pidgin Phonolgy: Coda Consonants in Vernacular Liberian English
Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on The Role of Learnability in Grammatical Theory (1996)
Theories of Creole Genesis, Sociohistorical Considerations, and the Evaluation of Evidence: The Case of Haitian Creole and the Relexification Hypothesis
In an early Caribbean colony the conversion from other crops to sugar monoculture utterly transformed the colony's society and arguably its language as well. A comparative quantitative analysis of the populations of Haiti and Martinique makes the case that the initial period of creole genesis on each island extended as much as 50 years beyond the introduction of sugar growing. The reconstruction of the ethnic distribution of the African populatio…
Pidgin and Creole Tense-Mood-Aspect Systems
1. Introduction: Pidgins and Creoles and Tense-Mood-Aspect (by Singler, John Victor) 2. On the Adequacy of natural Languages: I. The Development of Tense (by Labov, William) 3. Papiamentu Tense-Aspect, with Special Attention to Discourse 4. Time Reference in Kikongo-Kituba (by Mufwene, Salikoko S.) 5. Tense, Mood, and Aspect in the Haitian Creole Preverbal Marker System (by Spears, Arthur K.) 6. Tense and Aspect in Capeverdean Crioulo (by Silva, …
Nativization and Pidgin/Creole Genesis: A Reply to Bickerton
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Melanesian Pidgin and the Oceanic Substrate
Phonology in the basilect the fate of final consonants in Liberian Interior English
Pidginized Liberian Interior English (LIE) has English as its lexifier language and Mande languages as its substrate. Broadly speaking, this means that LIE takes its lexicon from English and its phonology from Mande. However, the structure of English words clashes with Mande syllable structure conditions, particularly with regard to word-final consonants. To resolve this conflict, LIE has in some cases restructured the English words and in others…
On the use of sociohistorical criteria in the comparison of creoles
Plural Marking in Liberian Settler English, 1820-1980
The Story of O
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The Homogeneity of the Substrate as a Factor in Pidgin/Creole Genesis
The likelihood that substrate languages play a key role in pidgin/creole genesis is widely acknowledged; still, because so many instantiations of substratal influence involve phenomena that occur widely in the world's languages, the question arises, for a given pidgin or creole, whether the responsible factor is the substrate or linguistic universals. To separate the specifically substratal from the universal, the present study examines highly ma…
Plural Marking in Liberian Settler English, 1820-1980
The Homogeneity of the Substrate as a Factor in Pidgin/Creole Genesis
The likelihood that substrate languages play a key role in pidgin/creole genesis is widely acknowledged; still, because so many instantiations of substratal influence involve phenomena that occur widely in the world's languages, the question arises, for a given pidgin or creole, whether the responsible factor is the substrate or linguistic universals. To separate the specifically substratal from the universal, the present study examines highly ma…
What's Not New in Aave
Depuis plus de 10 ans, une question centrale dans l'etude de l'anglais vernaculaire afro-americain (AVAA) a ete de determiner dans quelle mesure il converge avec et/ou diverge des langues vernaculaires blanches americaines. Pour etablir la divergence de l'AVAA, il est necessaire de montrer que non seulement il possede un grand nombre de traits que l'on ne trouve pas dans d'autres langues vernaculaires americaines, mais aussi que ces traits repres…
The Configuration of Liberia's Englishes
Liberian English,' the non-standard English-lexifier speech of Liberia, can be divided into three varieties: Kru Pidgin English, spoken by Kru mariners and migrant workers; Settler English, spoken by descendants of nineteenth-century African American immigrants to Liberia; and Vernacular Liberian English, spoken by the rest of Liberia's English-speaking population. An examination of 21 speakers of putatively basilectal and lower-mesolectual Verna…
On the use of sociohistorical criteria in the comparison of creoles
Creolization in Context: Historical and Typological Perspectives
We provide a selective overview of the state of pidgin and creole language studies, with a focus on the different ways in which the question of creole genesis—especially of European-lexifier creoles—is approached: from the perspective of the demographics and periodization of the (early) life of the colonies and from the perspective of the role of typological concepts such as analyticity/syntheticity and simplicity/complexity in the mechanisms of …
The case for politeness: Pronoun variation in co-ordinate NPs in object position in English
The use of the nominative 1sg pronouns in co-ordinate NPs in object position, most famously between you and I, has received much attention from prescriptivists and formal linguists, but it has never been the object of a variationist study that compares its usage to that of other variants. This article seeks to fill the gap, based on a data set of co-ordinate NPs in object position, gathered through observation of everyday speech as well as in exp…
Where did Liberian English NA Come From
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Vowel harmony in Klao linear and nonlinear analyses
Klao, a Kru language spoken in Liberia, has a nine-vowel system. Like most other Kru languages, it displays harmony sensitive to pharyngeal constriction (tongue-root retraction). What gives the Klao vowel-harmony system special interest is the fact that a great deal of variation occurs, suggesting that vowel harmony is in some way optional. This provides a counter-example to the claim (made in Clements [1977l) that root-controlled vowel harmony i…
The Psychology of Literacy
Vowel harmony in Klao linear and nonlinear analyses
Klao, a Kru language spoken in Liberia, has a nine-vowel system. Like most other Kru languages, it displays harmony sensitive to pharyngeal constriction (tongue-root retraction). What gives the Klao vowel-harmony system special interest is the fact that a great deal of variation occurs, suggesting that vowel harmony is in some way optional. This provides a counter-example to the claim (made in Clements [1977l) that root-controlled vowel harmony i…
On the underlying representation of contour tones in Wobe
In a 1980 article entitled "The tone puzzle of Wobe," Thomas Bearth and Christa Link argue that only by positing phonemic contour tones can one account satisfactorily for the tone facts of Wobe, a western Kru language spoken in the Ivory Coast. In their analysis, they posit the features [Rise], [Fall], and [Concave] in addition to [High], [Low], and [Extreme]. In fact their analysis abandons the assertion that surface glides can always be "de-com…
John Victor Singler
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The City, The Mesolect, and Innovation
Change in a creole or pidgin continuum is like linguistic change elsewhere: innovations that are identified with speakers who bear prestige are likely to spread, while innovations identified with speakers who do not bear prestige are not. In the case of the continuum that spans Liberian English (from pidgin to standard), the greatest prestige is assigned to acrolectal speakers, and decreolizing changes are the most frequent type. However, the urb…
Where did Liberian English NA Come From
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The Story of O
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The Homogeneity of the Substrate as a Factor in Pidgin/Creole Genesis
The likelihood that substrate languages play a key role in pidgin/creole genesis is widely acknowledged; still, because so many instantiations of substratal influence involve phenomena that occur widely in the world's languages, the question arises, for a given pidgin or creole, whether the responsible factor is the substrate or linguistic universals. To separate the specifically substratal from the universal, the present study examines highly ma…
Plural Marking in Liberian Settler English, 1820-1980
On the use of sociohistorical criteria in the comparison of creoles
Phonology in the basilect the fate of final consonants in Liberian Interior English
Pidginized Liberian Interior English (LIE) has English as its lexifier language and Mande languages as its substrate. Broadly speaking, this means that LIE takes its lexicon from English and its phonology from Mande. However, the structure of English words clashes with Mande syllable structure conditions, particularly with regard to word-final consonants. To resolve this conflict, LIE has in some cases restructured the English words and in others…
Nativization and Pidgin/Creole Genesis: A Reply to Bickerton
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Melanesian Pidgin and the Oceanic Substrate
Pidgin and Creole Tense-Mood-Aspect Systems
1. Introduction: Pidgins and Creoles and Tense-Mood-Aspect (by Singler, John Victor) 2. On the Adequacy of natural Languages: I. The Development of Tense (by Labov, William) 3. Papiamentu Tense-Aspect, with Special Attention to Discourse 4. Time Reference in Kikongo-Kituba (by Mufwene, Salikoko S.) 5. Tense, Mood, and Aspect in the Haitian Creole Preverbal Marker System (by Spears, Arthur K.) 6. Tense and Aspect in Capeverdean Crioulo (by Silva, …
An OT Account of Pidgin Phonolgy: Coda Consonants in Vernacular Liberian English
Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on The Role of Learnability in Grammatical Theory (1996)
Theories of Creole Genesis, Sociohistorical Considerations, and the Evaluation of Evidence: The Case of Haitian Creole and the Relexification Hypothesis
In an early Caribbean colony the conversion from other crops to sugar monoculture utterly transformed the colony's society and arguably its language as well. A comparative quantitative analysis of the populations of Haiti and Martinique makes the case that the initial period of creole genesis on each island extended as much as 50 years beyond the introduction of sugar growing. The reconstruction of the ethnic distribution of the African populatio…
The Configuration of Liberia's Englishes
Liberian English,' the non-standard English-lexifier speech of Liberia, can be divided into three varieties: Kru Pidgin English, spoken by Kru mariners and migrant workers; Settler English, spoken by descendants of nineteenth-century African American immigrants to Liberia; and Vernacular Liberian English, spoken by the rest of Liberia's English-speaking population. An examination of 21 speakers of putatively basilectal and lower-mesolectual Verna…
What's Not New in Aave
Depuis plus de 10 ans, une question centrale dans l'etude de l'anglais vernaculaire afro-americain (AVAA) a ete de determiner dans quelle mesure il converge avec et/ou diverge des langues vernaculaires blanches americaines. Pour etablir la divergence de l'AVAA, il est necessaire de montrer que non seulement il possede un grand nombre de traits que l'on ne trouve pas dans d'autres langues vernaculaires americaines, mais aussi que ces traits repres…
John Victor Singler in response to Derek Bickerton
The case for politeness: Pronoun variation in co-ordinate NPs in object position in English
The use of the nominative 1sg pronouns in co-ordinate NPs in object position, most famously between you and I, has received much attention from prescriptivists and formal linguists, but it has never been the object of a variationist study that compares its usage to that of other variants. This article seeks to fill the gap, based on a data set of co-ordinate NPs in object position, gathered through observation of everyday speech as well as in exp…
The ?linguistic? asylum interview and the linguist's evaluation of it, with special reference to applicants for Liberian political asylum in Switzerland
The ability of 'linguistic' asylum interviews to assess where an asylum applicant has been socialized rests on several factors. Relevant linguistic boundaries must be known, and they must be compatible with political borders. However, even if the circumstances are such that the relation of linguistic to national boundaries is not problematic, consistently reliable evaluation is possible only if the evaluator is trained in linguistics and knowledg…
The 'linguistic' asylum interview and the linguist's evaluation of it, with special reference to applicants for Liberian political asylum in Switzerland
The ability of 'linguistic' asylum interviews to assess where an asylum applicant has been socialized rests on several factors. Relevant linguistic boundaries must be known, and they must be compatible with political borders. However, even if the circumstances are such that the relation of linguistic to national boundaries is not problematic, consistently reliable evaluation is possible only if the evaluator is trained in linguistics and knowledg…
Yes, but not in the Caribbean
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Children and creole genesis
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Samaná and Sinoe, Part I: Stalking the vernacular
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Linguistics (22 works) · Philosophy (21 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (16 works) · History (13 works) · Philosophy (13 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (12 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Creole language (10 works) · History (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works)