Valency, transitivity and multifunctionality in Cameroon Pidgin English

喀麦隆洋金英语(CPE)是一种主要以英语为基础的语言，有200多万人说，它是英国在西非殖民历史的活生生的艺术品。现有的研究主要集中在它的结构和社会语言学上，但直到最近还不可能对其进行详细的词汇分析。最近和即将到来的数字数据集为这种分析提供了机会。这个项目使用语料库数据来研究多义CPE动词及其及物性模式，将这些模式置于跨语言环境中。考察这些动词的意义之间的关系，以及这些动词的变化过程，将有助于揭示在多语言环境中语言变化和变异的模式。由于关于CPE的历史起源的信息相对较少，本研究将有助于语言形成和接触环境变化的理论，并将有益于克里奥尔地理学、语义学和西非社会历史复杂性的学者。

Cameroon Pidgin English (CPE), a primarily English-based language with over 2 million speakers, is aliving artefact of England's colonial history in West Africa. Existing research focuses on its structure andsociolinguistics, but until recently detailed lexical analysis has been impossible. Recent and forthcomingdigital datasets yield the opportunity for such analyses. This project uses corpus data to examinepolysemous CPE verbs and their patterns of transitivity, placing these patterns in a crosslinguisticcontext. Examining the relationships between senses of these verbs and the processes by which theyarose will shed light on patterns of language change and variation in a multilingual environment. Asthere is relatively little information about the historical origins of CPE, this research will contribute totheories of language formation and change in contact environments and will benefit scholars of creoletypology, semantics and the socio-historic complexity of West Africa.