Bare nouns in African-American
English (AAE) and Palenquero (P)
(he City University of New York)
AAE, which Holm (forthcoming) has classified as a semi-creole, is of interest for creole studies because it has (1) grammatical (not simply lexical) features that can be classified as Africanisms (e.g., the semi-auxiliary come [Spears 1980, 1982, 1990], which is found is the West African language Bambara, and in at least the following creoles: Haitian, Jamaican, and Guyanese [Spears to appear a], and also in Surinamese Dutch, which will no doubt eventually be classified as a semi-creole) and (2) grammatical features that can be classified as creolisms, i.e., features shared with some creole languages, e.g., associative them; come, mentioned above; and serial-like verb constructions [Spears to appear b].
Of interest for this communication is that AAE bare nouns can take interpretations reminiscent of those specific to creole languages. Bare nouns taking a definite interpretation have not been reported for (AAE), also known as Ebonic [sic] (Fasold 1999). However, they do indeed exist (see the following brief dialog) and raise the question of whether this is yet another hitherto unreported creolism in AAE that is just now being recognized. Note the following brief dialog, in which dog may occur as a bare noun with a definite interpretation:
1. (Material inside the parentheses is optional.)
A: Look at that dog over there eating on that stuff! Dogs’ll eat anything.
B: Well, (the) dog’s probably hungry. If you was hungry enough, you’d probably eat anything too.
It is well known that non-African-American, i.e., other American dialects (OAD), indeed, all other English dialects--as well as AAE have bare singular mass nouns (e.g., butter and salt ) and some bare irregular plurals (e.g., sheep PLURAL)
Holm (2000:214) claims that definite bare nouns do not occur in Atlantic creoles, although this phenomenon does occur in non-Atlantic creoles such as Tok Pisin and Nubi. However, Schwegler and Green (to appear) provide counterevidence to this claim of Holm’s about Atlantic creoles, with data showing that bare nouns in (P) may express definiteness contextually. The P bare noun is unmarked for definiteness and plurality (Schwegler and Green to appear). Note the following example:
2. Pelo asé ndrumí mucho.
The dog sleeps a lot (Schwegler & Green to appear:38)
AAE and P bare nouns, nevertheless, have significantly different grammatical statuses in the respective languages. E.g., AAE nouns, as those of other English dialects (with some different sets of exceptions), obligatorily mark number, even if it is with a zero morpheme, as with singulars and some exceptional plurals. Note, for example, that plurality must be marked in the following AAE sentences, but the definite article is optional:
3. (Nouns of interest, which are definite, are in boldface. Optional material is in parentheses.)
A: You got too many suits!
B: (Yeah, but (the) suits I got are all good.
A: Yeah, but you don’t even have a chance to wear ‘em (= them ) all.
B: Well, (the) suits I got still in good condition, so I’m gonna keep ‘em.
Since AAE bare nouns, as in some creoles, can take a definite interpretation, even though this is generally impossible in other English varieties, it is reasonable tentatively to classify this feature as a creolism. In any case, the occurrence of bare nouns in an Atlantic creole and an Atlantic semi-creole forces us to reformulate our views of the grammars of Atlantic creoles and semi-creoles
Keywords: Palenquero; African-American English; bare nouns; definiteness; semi-creoles.