Locative constructions and the genealogical differentiation of the Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creoles

This talk aims to provide a typologically informed comparative analysis of locative constructions in the African and the Caribbean branches of the Afro-Caribbean Englishlexifier Creoles (henceforth AECs). The analysis is based on primary data collected in West Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea), and the Caribbean (Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname). A second objective is to account for the genealogical differentiation of this young linguistic family that arose in the 17th century (cf. e.g. Hancock 1987; Smith 2015) by focusing on a specific functional domain: There are marked typological differences in the way spatial relations are expressed between (a) the attested African substrates and adstrates of the AECs (chiefly languages of the Volta-Congo linguistic phylum of Africa), and (b) the AECs’ lexifier language English. The following points summarize the distinctive characteristics …postprin