Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics
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Welcome to the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics sub-community. Our academic staff members are actively engaged in a wide range of research interests.
Our Linguistics research focuses on a number of subfields of linguistics including grammar (phonology, morphology, syntax), anthropological linguistics, applied linguistics, forensic linguistics, historical linguistics, language acquisition, sociolinguistics (including sociophonetics), sign linguistics, speech-language pathology, language documentation, and more.
The languages of our research include English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Trinidadian French Creole (Patois), Tobagonian (English Creole), Trinidadian (English Creole), and Trinidad & Tobago Sign Language (TTSL). Our staff and postgraduate students are researching aspects of these languages, as well as Arabic and Bhojpuri.
Our research into Modern Romance Languages and their Literatures include Culturometrics, Latin American Studies, Literary Representations of Indigenous Cultures of Latin America, Social and Political Issues and Literature in Latin America, 19th Century French Literature, Francophone Post-Colonial Studies, French Cinema, Luso-Caribbean Language, History and Culture, Portuguese Language Studies, Brazilian Film and Popular Culture, Afro-Hispanic Literature (Race and Hybridity), Hispanic Drama (Latin American and Spain), the Mexican Novel, Women in Hispanic Literature, and much more.
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Item A Synchronic and Diachronic Analysis of French Creole Tense, Mood, and Aspect Markers in Trinidad and Tobago, and other Selected Caribbean Territories(2023-05-14) Lewis, MackalaSome French Creoles within the Caribbean, like many other Creoles within the region, are relatively under-researched, and as such, can sometimes be viewed as only being one language with little variation or few differences despite being spoken in several territories. In Trinidad and Tobago, the French Creole spoken is considered to be an endangered variety, although there are currently attempts being made to document and ultimately revive the language by individuals like Nnamdi Hodge and Jo-Anne Ferreira (Belle). Despite there being literature available where the focus is a comparative analysis of French Creoles, Trinidadian French Creole (TFC) is hardly ever included in these comparisons, and the Tense, Mood, and Aspect Markers of TFC have hardly ever been investigated with a brief mention in a relatively recent two volume atlas by le Dû and Brun-Trigaud (Hazaël-Massieux). In 1869, John Jacob Thomas published the first ever book on the grammar of TFC, and, by extension, was the first ever grammar where a French Creole was the focus. This book was written when French Creole was the lingua franca of Trinidad, and thus, it is necessary to investigate whether any changes have taken place from then to the present-day. Data were collected from current TFC speakers, where it was determined that the TMA markers have remained largely the same. When looking at Haitian Creole and St Lucian French Creole, Valdman and Carrington’s works were used as a point of comparison, respectively. In observing the TMA markers that exist in TFC as compared to Haitian Creole (Kreyòl) and St Lucian French Creole (Kwéyòl), it was discovered that the TMA markers of TFC and St Lucian Kwéyòl share greater similarity, which is part of the basis of their classification as Lesser Antillean French Creoles.Item An Investigation into the Attitudes towards Trinidadian French Creole in the Education System(2021-05-28) Joseph, Carmen; White, Lee AnnThe various research projects done on Trinidadian French Creole (TFC) have focused mainly on areas such as sociolinguistics, sociohistorical linguistics and structural features of the language, but not on how language attitudes within the education system have impacted and can impact the revival of this endangered language variety. In order to efficiently evaluate this impact of language in education, the attitudes towards French Creole (FC) within The University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine must be analyzed thoroughly. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the importance of language attitudes, and how they affect the language revitalization of TFC, by evaluating UWI, St. Augustine's French-lexicon Creole courses and their contribution towards the possible revival of the language. This study's analysis has been achieved through the use of the grounded theory methodology because of its qualitative and systematic analysis. Purposive sampling was used as five past and present lecturers were interviewed and forty questionnaires were distributed through online platforms. These interviews were used as secondary data which produced concepts of language in education, language attitudes, language awareness, cultural teaching, cultural heritage, Creole events, field trips, and social identity, through the use of axial coding. These concepts were used in the analysis of the questionnaires which were analyzed as the primary data as it held the core phenomenon of the study. The phenomenon guided the study to produce the theoretical outcome. The results produced from both the primary and secondary data showed that language awareness through the education of TFC contributed to the cognitive development of students' emotional perception and motivation towards the revitalization of TFC. Therefore, the cognitive element of the students' language attitudes played the most significant role in influencing the students' connection to TFC and their subsequent revitalization efforts.Item Are They Dying? The Case of Some French-lexifier Creoles(2014-06-05) Ferreira, Jo-Anne S.; HOLBROOK, David J.This paper is a compilation of three recent, separate surveys of three French-lexifier Creoles from three English-speaking nations. The main goal of these surveys was to determine the current ethnolinguistic vitality of these language varieties (i.e., are these varieties really endangered?). The three French-lexifier Creoles in question are those spoken in Grenada and Carriacou, in Trinidad, and in Louisiana in the USA. David Holbrook conducted the surveys in Grenada and Carriacou, and Louisiana, and Jo-Anne Ferreira conducted the survey in Trinidad.Item Bilingual Education among the Karipúna and Galibi-Marwono: Prospects and Possibilities for Language Preservation(John Benjamins, 2010) Ferreira, Jo-Anne S.Amapá French Creole is spoken mainly by the Karipúna and Galibi-Marwono, who are both indigenous Brazilians as well as members of the wider Caribbean French Creole-speaking community. Members of both ethnic groups are bilingual in French Creole and Portuguese to varying degrees, depending on their ethnohistory and geographical location, and language attitudes vary from group to group and village to village. Catholic and Protestant missions have been largely responsible for promoting a 3-year bilingual education primary school programme among these French Creole speakers, and there has also been government support in this area. The bilingual programme aims to preserve the mother tongue of the Karipúna and GalibiMarwono youth, as well as to provide these young Brazilians with a foundation in Portuguese. All education beyond primary school is in Portuguese, the official language, which is the language of prestige, power and offers possibilities for socio-economic advancement. It is in the context of bilingual education that many young Karipúna and Galibi-Marwono are first exposed to Portuguese. In this language contact situation, a growing preference for Portuguese may well militate against longer term language maintenance efforts in these French Creole Amerindian minority communities. This chapter explores bilingual education among both the Karipúna and Galibi-Marwono, government policies for indigenous mother-tongue education, and the models and materials currently in use. The chapter focuses on the prospects for the double-edged sword of bilingual education, representing at once hope for language maintenance as well as the source of possible long-term erosion for the very language that the current programme is trying to preserve.Item Bush versus Stush: Linguistic Stereotypes in Trinidad(2016-05-10) Thompson, Theron E.; Wright, KristinPerceptual Dialectology (PD) is the branch of folk linguistics that deals with the regional distribution from the point of view of non-specialists (the “folk”). This study, Bush versus Stush: Linguistic Stereotypes in Trinidad, aims to build upon this premise by juxtaposing these perceived dialectal boundaries and actual (linguist-defined) dialectal variation variables so as to analyse whether or not they correlate. To do so, how people describe language variation, the geolinguistic stereotypes that exist and the linguist-demarcated isoglosses of Trinidad must be understood so as to answer the questions of “What are the Perceptions of Language variation in Trinidad?”. As nothing of its kind has ever been performed in Trinidad, this study intends to pioneer the field of PD regionally, and hopefully to inspire other studies of its kind. The findings revealed intrinsic links between perceived language variation and geographical location, language attitudes and stereotypes, perceived socio-economic class and language variation and ethnicity and stereotypical language use.Item Caribbean Languages and Caribbean Linguistics(UWI Press, 2012) Ferreira, Jo-Anne S.Of the 1,000 plus languages of the Americas, 70 are in use across the 29 territories of the Caribbean, including both the archipelago and continental rimlands (Allsopp 1996). Linguistic situations of the Caribbean are complex, with language users managing an interface between and among a variety of heritage languages, each with its own social status, and some with both national and official status. Linguistic groupings include indigenous Amerindian languages, European languages, creole languages, sign languages (indigenous and foreign), and immigrant languages of various origins, including religious languages. With regard to European languages and creole languages, the relationships are varied, intense and often appear to be problematic, especially where they meet in the arena of formal education. In addition to the complexity of the living languages, their varieties and the often overlapping communities of practice to which their users (speakers and signers) belong, there are a number of heritage languages in various stages of obsolescence. Some are almost totally extinct, and some moribund, with few, if any, young native language users. Caribbean(ist) linguists have been engaged in the analysis and documentation of these languages and language situations for several decades, many pioneering work in hitherto neglected areas. These linguistics studies have an immediate application to formal education, language and language education policies, sustainable and ongoing language and culture development, communication, issues of identity, heritage and ethnicity, nation-building, linguistic rights and discrimination and language revitalisation. To understand human language as an integral and inseparable part of human culture is to begin to understand human and issues of social and cultural identity. This is the work of linguists in the Caribbean and beyond. *****ERRATA***** (missing from published version on *Table 9.1 Amerindian Languages of Belize and the Guyanas, under Carib, page 133): *Akurio *Sikiana and *TrióItem A Case Study of the Lexical Retentions of French Creole in Beausejour, Diego Martin, Trinidad(UWI, 2017-04-30) Joseph, July E.French Creole studies in Trinidad have attempted to explain the grammatical features. Different scholars have variously focused on the syntactic, morphological and phonological features of French Creole such as Goodman (1958). Even though, there have been attempts to create a table glossary of French Creole lexical items, there has been no attempt to explain the distribution and use of these lexical items in Trinidad. Additionally, there have been some studies that have focused on the language revitalization such as the factors necessary for the possible revival of the language, Ferreira and Holbrook (2002). While these studies are stimulating, they tend to focus on areas where French Creole is currently spoken. Still it is necessary to explore the idea of language revitalization in those areas where French Creole is not spoken as it is crucial to garner the support of the entire community. In this study, we would like to use a table glossary to describe the use and retention of French Creole terms in a non-French Creole speaking community. Additionally, their language attitudes will be explored and the implications this may have on any possible language planning initiatives aimed at the revitalization of French Creole in Trinidad. Once the language of Diego Martin, French Creole has largely been displaced. This is evidenced in other areas where French Creole is currently speaking. The number of French Creole speakers has decreased and continues to do so due mainly to the social mobility afforded to English. Furthermore, French Creole was once the language of many different domains, from Folklore to Folk Medicine, Flora to Carnival, in addition to Fauna. By exploring these domains that were once dominated by French Creole, we can determine the extent to which French Creole has died in a community. Moreover, the exploration of these attitudes in addition to the lexical retentions, can aid in the shaping of language planning initiatives in terms of whether there would be support from the community. This is a mixed methodology study consisting of interviews of fifteen persons living in Beausejour, Diego Martin. The sample was determined through first snowball sampling and then purposive sampling to ensure that the interviewees adhered to certain social variables such as age and gender. It was found that overall, Carnival and Folklore had the highest number of retentions, however there was variation according to age group. Also, the researcher found that the language attitudes of the respondents while positive suggested that few of the respondents would support a proposal for the teaching of French Creole whether in schools or as an activity in the community centre. This study, while it does not present any solutions, provides an overview of the current use of French Creole outside of the French Creole speech community. This provides a base for future researchers when determining the right method to be used in future language revitalization projects. In addition, the study provides a sample of the current use of certain French Creole terms as well as the language attitudes of a section of the population. Keywords: French Creole, Trinidad, language revitalization, language planning, lexical retentionsItem Comparative perspectives on the origins, development and structure of Amazonian (Karipúna) French Creole(2010-05-04T17:59:30Z) Ferreira, Jo-Anne S.; ALLEYNE, Mervyn C.Together known as Kheuól, Karipúna French Creole (KFC) and Galibi-Marwono French Creole (GMFC) are two varieties of Amazonian French Creole (AFC) spoken in the Uaçá area of northern Amapá in Brazil. They are socio-historically and linguistically connected with and considered to be varieties of Guianese French Creole (GFC). This paper focuses on the external history of the Brazilian varieties, and compares a selection of linguistic forms across AFC with those of GFC and Antillean varieties, including nasalised vowels, the personal pronouns and the verbal markers. St. Lucian was chosen as representative of the Antillean French creoles of the South-Eastern Caribbean, including Martinique and Trinidad, whose populations have had a history of contact with those of northern Brazil since the sixteenth century. Data have been collected from both field research and archival research into secondary sources.Item A description of the copular clause in Trinidadian French Creole based on Higgins (1979)(UWI, 2016-05-10) Bisnath, FeliciaThis study describes the copular clause in the variety of Trinidadian French Creole (TFC) spoken in Paramin using Higgins’ (1979) taxonomy of copular clauses. Higgins’ taxonomy identifies four classes based on syntactic and semantic criteria. Such documentation is important since TFC is an endangered heritage language with a 146-year-old grammar that does not treat with copular clauses comprehensively and cohesively. The study aimed to determine the distribution of the equative, attributive and locative copulas attested in Creole languages and to determine the semantic properties of the clauses studied. This was done with the help of two native speaker consultants and one non-native speaker in a methodology that involved reverse translation elicitation, creation of a novel testing schedule to determine the semantic properties of the clauses under study based on English tests proposed by Higgins (1979), Mikkelsen (2011)and Niimura (2007), and construction and introspection elicitation. The schedule included the following tests: subject-complement inversion, vini-replacement, alternation with sé-clefts and embedding under a propositional verb without a copula. The study found four forms occupying the position of the copula, /se/, /sete/, ø and /te/, but posits two copular forms. /se/ is the equative copula with the variant /sete/ found with NP predicate complements in all of Higgins’ classes and ø the locative and attributive forms found in the predicational class only. /te/ is analysed as the pre-verbal anterior marker, and /sete/ as a bimorphemic combination of /se/ and /te/. Additionally, the study found that predicational, identificational, and specificational clauses can be identified based on their responses to the four tests used in the study. Predicational clauses pass vini-replacement and embedding under a propositional verb without a copula, ICs fail subject-complement inversion and embedding, and SCs pass subject-complement inversion and alternation with sé-clefts. The study also raised methodological issues in studying the semantic properties of copular clauses in French Creoles and endangered languages.Item Digital Atlas of the Toponyms of Trinidad and Tobago (DATTT)(2019-03) Ferreira, Jo-AnneThis project aims to document the toponyms of Trinidad and Tobago, via a series of customised Google maps. The project was conceived of a) in honour of the International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL) 2019, b) in response to a popular but erroneous map circulating on social media, and c) to graphically illustrate and further the research of scholars (such as Michael Anthony, Rawwida Baksh-Soodeen, Arie Boomert, Kemlin Laurence, CR Ottley, RW Thompson, Maureen Warner-Lewis, and Brinsley Samaroo) for academic and educational uses. While the diversity of the place names of Trinidad and Tobago is widely accepted, the actual depth of this diversity is not truly known. This project is expected to graphically account for and demonstrate the impact of a number of ethnolinguistic groups on Trinidad and Tobago's linguistic landscape, thus awakening a greater awareness of a fascinating phenomenon. In addition, the extent of intersecting and overlapping hybrid names, as well as little known etymologies will be uncovered (or where lost to history, documented or hypothesised). Underpinning this project is an appreciation and a sense of the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to make sense of a complex reality, often much taken for granted.Item Discovering Resemblances: Language and Identity in Caribbean Poetry(Delaware Review of Latin American Studies, 2004-08-15) Roberts, Nicole“Hispanic” is an identification generally accepted in the Caribbean by both black and white residents of the islands. Examination of poems by several black Caribbean poets (the Puerto Ricans Mayra Santos Febres and Magaly Quiñones, the Dominicans Sherezada [Chiqui] Vicioso and Blas Jiménez, and the Cuban Escilia Saldaña) reveals how they use Spanish to communicate the life experience unique to black bearers of the cultural term “Hispanic.”Item Dos cuentos breves de Fredric Brown(2014-06-05) Sánchez-Galvis, JairoSe presentan dos cuentos en los que los personajes se sienten impotentes ante el destino y tienen que actuar de acuerdo con las imposiciones de otros. En el primer cuento, El aficionado, un hombre intenta comprar veneno indetectable. Brown se caracteriza por un humor satírico que hace reflexionar al lector, especialmente en el caso de su cuento El solipsista, en el cual W.B. Jehová se ve enfrentado a una cuestión existencial. Los originales fueron tomados de una antología de QUEEN, D.: Configurations, 1982. English Teaching Division, Educational and Cultural Affairs. Washington, D.C.Item English for medical purposes(2022) Ibrahim-Ali, Amina; Marshall, ShelleyIn 2009 the University of the West Indies (UWI) Centre for Language Learning (CLL) was contracted by the Ministry of Health to provide an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course for a newly-arrived cohort of Cuban healthcare professionals. By the end of a sixty-hour course in a two-week period, these doctors and nurses were to assume duty at local hospitals and health centres throughout Trinidad & Tobago. Readiness of the Cuban medical staff for the local context implied their familiarity with local cultural norms and their ability to decipher the local standard language and creole; and to make themselves understood.Item Helping or hindering language growth? A snapshot of Hispanic ‘in-transit’ learners in Trinidad(2019-02-19) Ibrahim-Ali, Amina; Guedez-Fernandez, RomuloItem The History and Future of Patuá in Paria: Report on Initial Language Revitalization Efforts for French Creole in Venezuela (Short Note)(2010-05-04T18:00:46Z) Ferreira, Jo-Anne S.Patuá of the Paria Peninsula of Venezuela, a variety of Lesser Antillean French-lexicon Creole, may be categorised as a dying variety, as its ethnolinguistic vitality appears to be relatively poor. This variety, like other minority varieties of French Creole in Latin America, is spoken primarily in a border area, namely the Trinidad-Venezuela Paria area. Other varieties in similar border situations include Haitian Creole spoken on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and Karipúna and Galibi-Marwono French-lexicon Creole spoken in Oiapoque, on the Brazilian side of the Oiapoque river border of French Guiana-Brazil. In Venezuela, French Creole is spoken in two areas—Güíria on the Paria peninsula (capital of the Valdéz municipality, Estado Sucre), and El Callao in Estado Bolívar to the south. Native speakers include elderly Venezuelans with ancestral ties but no immediate connection to the insular Caribbean, as well as Venezuelan children of recent migrants from Haiti and the Lesser Antilles. There is now growing interest in the language and culture of Venezuelan French Creole (VFC) speakers, on the part of descendants of these groups, as well as on the part of other citizens of Estados Sucre and Bolívar, and researchers. This preliminary paper seeks to explore the origins of the apparent renaissance and resurgence of this dying language variety, and to place it in the context of the French Creole language family of the Caribbean.Item How Iguana Got Her Wrinkles - Literary Dialectal Translation Worksheet(2014-06-05) Sánchez-Galvis, JairoThe worksheet will guide students through a presentation on different approaches to the translation of literary works containing dialectal markers with special emphasis on Caribbean literature in English and Spanish.Item The influence of Portuguese on Amazonian French Creole lexicon(John Benjamins, 2017-11) Ferreira, Jo-Anne S.This paper focuses on Kheuól, an Amazonian French Creole variety spoken by the Karipúna and Galibi-Marwono in northern Amapá, Brazil. The paper will examine the nature and degree of the contact between French Creole and Portuguese on the Oiapoque River Border, and on the resulting Portuguese influence on Kheuól lexicon at present. As the official language of Brazil, Portuguese remains the prestige language, and continues to dominate the educational system, religion and trade in the Oiapoque area of Uaçá, northern Amapá (Tassinari 2003). Data sources include three bilingual French Creole-Portuguese dictionaries, two published (Tobler 1987 and Picanço Montejo 1988) and one unpublished (Corrêa and Corrêa1998), as well as interviews with speakers.Item La historia y el futuro del patuá en Paria: Informe de los esfuerzos iniciales en la revitalización del criollo francés en Venezuela(Universidad de Puerto Rico, 2010-04) Ferreira, Jo-Anne S.El patuá venezolano, un criollo antillano de léxico francés, se puede categorizar como una variedad lingüística moribunda, ya que su vitalidad etnolingüística parece ser relativamente pobre. Como los demás criollos franceses de América del Sur, se habla mayormente en una zona fronteriza, en este caso la frontera marítima entre Trinidad y Venezuela en dos áreas-- Güíria en la península Paria (capital del municipio de Valdez, Estado Sucre) y El Callao en Estado Bolívar al sur. Los hablantes nativos incluyen a venezolanos con enlaces ancestrales pero ninguna conexión inmediata al Caribe insular y a hijos venezolanos de migrantes recientes de Haití y de las Antillas Menores. Hay un creciente interés en el idioma y la cultura de los hablantes del criollo francés de Venezuela (VFC, por sus siglas en inglés) de parte de los descendientes de estos grupos, de los otros ciudadanos de los Estados Sucre y Bolívar y de investigadores. Este artículo explora los orígenes del aparente renacimiento y resurgimiento del patuá venezolano y lo ubica en el contexto de la familia de los criollos franceses del Caribe. Venezuelan Patuá, a variety of Lesser Antillean French-lexicon Creole, may be categorized as a dying variety, since its ethnolinguistic vitality appears to be relatively poor. Like other minority varieties of French Creole in Latin America, it is spoken primarily in a border zone, in this case along the maritime frontier between Trinidad and Venezuela in two areas— Güíria in the Paria Peninsula (capital of the municipality of Valdez, Estado Sucre) and El Callao in Estado Bolívar to the south. Native speakers include elderly Venezuelans with ancestral ties but no immediate connection to the insular Caribbean, as well as Venezuelan-born children of recent migrants from Haiti and the Lesser Antilles. There is now growing interest in the language and culture of Venezuelan French Creole (VFC) speakers on the part of descendants of these groups, other citizens of Estados Sucre and Bolívar, and researchers. This paper explores the origins of the apparent renaissance and resurgence of Venezuelan Patuá and places it in the context of the language family of French Creoles of the Caribbean.Item Language, Education and Representation: Towards Sustainable Development for Haiti(2010-05-04T18:00:11Z) Youssef, ValerieAs Haiti labours under the extreme stress of possibly its greatest natural disaster to date and as vast sums of money seek to enter its vacuous system and to bring relief, it behoves us to consider the many aspects of the Haitian situation which have kept it in abject poverty down to the present and to seek means of redressing, not just the immediate crisis, but its long term internal socio-political dilemma. We all recognize the power of education in enabling a people to rise up, to become empowered, to take control of its own destiny, and yet Haiti remains with an education system which effectively excludes 75% of its people, despite ‘on paper’ efforts to address the problem.Item Madeiran Portuguese Migration to Guyana, St. Vincent, Antigua and Trinidad: A Comparative Overview(2006) Ferreira, Jo-Anne S.This paper represents a preliminary exploration of Madeiran migration to the Anglophone Caribbean. It seeks to consider the phenomenon of Madeiran migration in the context of the wider Anglophone Caribbean by comparing and contrasting the waves of Madeiran migration across the region, including the extent and rate of cultural assimilation in each new home of Madeiran migrants. Apart from the primary sources available for the Portuguese community of Trinidad, mainly secondary sources have been used and assessed for the other territories as an initial basis for comparison.
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