Causative and facilitative serial verbs in Asian Ibero-romance Creoles – a convergence of substrate and superstrate systems?

• Main Author: Alan N. Baxter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Open Library of Humanities 2009-12-01
• Series: Journal of Portuguese Linguistics
• Online Access: http://jpl.letras.ulisboa.pt/articles/119

This paper surveys the widespread presence of two types of serial verb – the direct causative and the indirect causative – in Portuguese and Spanish lexically-based creole languages of Asia. The discussion addresses the structural nature of these valency increasing constructions, considering the semantic relations involved in their argument sharing, and contemplates the potential roles of substrate and superstrate languages in their development. It is proposed that the geographic distribution of the serial verbs is owed to a convergence of substrate and superstrates. In the case of the Asian Portuguese lexically-based creoles, the convergence would have begun in India. Subsequently, as the Portuguese progressively established their trade network further east, the serial structures received substrate reinforcement in the different settings where creolization and stabilization occurred. Further reinforcement would have occurred by way of population movements between the communities over a longer period.