Evaluating Processability Theory as an explanation for creole features: a corpus-based case study of Cameroon Pidgin English

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This project examines the role of second language acquisition (SLA) in the development of creole languages. Despite arising in diverse language environments worldwide, creoles often have similar grammars. Plag (2008) explains these similaritiesusing Processability Theory, a cognitive theory of SLA which posits that learners create a cognitive 'interlanguage' which has predictable structural stages. Plag claims that similarities between creoles result from the language 'fossilising' at one of these stages. A large-scale typological investigation of the predictions of Plag's theory has yet to be conducted. My project examines the predictions it makes for Cameroon Pidgin English (CPE), a Creole spoken widely in Cameroon, by creating a typological inventory of linguistic features likely to have influenced CPE. The inventory will be used to create a set of predictions for CPE's structure based on Processability Theory, which will then be compared to data from a corpus (searchable digital database) of CPE, to empirically test the theory. The findings of this project will contribute to our understanding of how language structures emerge in contact situations.Research questions- Based on the syntactic structures found in its superstrate and substrate languages, what predictions does Processability Theory make for the syntax of CPE?- Do the syntactic structures present in the corpus of CPE match the predictions made by Processability Theory?Research methodsThe methodology for this project is based on Plag's Interlanguage Hypothesis (Plag 2008), using Pienemann's Processability Theory (Pienemann 1998), and involves the following stages:- Identify a set of syntactic feature parameters, including structures such as noun phrases, verb phrases, constituent order, relative clauses and other complex clauses.- Identify possible substrate languages - including Benue-Congo languages spoken around Douala where CPE is believed to have developed, and the substrate languages of Sierra Leonean Krio, with which CPE had extended contact.- Source grammars for these languages to identify their syntactic features, using library resources. Grammars unavailable at Sussex can be sourced at SOAS, a CHASE University, which I can access as an alumna.- Create a set of predictions for CPE for each parameter based on the structures of English and CPE's substrate languages using Processability Theory.- Test the predictions against the structures found in CPE using corpus searches to identify the strategy used for each parameter.This method also creates comparable sets of syntactic features for CPE and its substrate languages which can be used for future comparative or phylogenetic work.