Word-Formation and Creolisation

This book presents a comprehensive account of the word-formation patterns of an English-based creole language, Sranan, as found in its earliest sources, and compares them with the patterns attested in the input languages. It shows that the emergence of the patterns involved a variety of sources and mechanisms and was characterised by the absence of superstrate derivational affixes, the use of free morphemes as derivational markers and of compounding as the major word-formation strategy. The findings render untenable theoretical accounts of creole genesis based on one explanatory factor.