Deconstructing Creole

Download or read book Deconstructing Creole written by Umberto Ansaldo and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.