UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl)
UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository)
The development of the nominal domain in creole languages: A
comparative-typological approach
Bobyleva, E.
Publication date
2013
Link to publication
Citation for published version (APA):
Bobyleva, E. (2013). The development of the nominal domain in creole languages: A
comparative-typological approach. LOT.
General rights
It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons).
Disclaimer/Complaints regulations
If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible.
Acknowledgments
The story of this book goes back to January 2006 when I, then an MA student at the University of Amsterdam, knocked on Enoch’s door wondering whether I could get an offprint of his new paper on feature competition-and-selection in the development of the creole noun phrase. Enoch’s analysis was based on three Atlantic creoles: Haitian, Sranan, and Saramaccan. After reading the article, I knew one thing: This is something that should be investigated on a larger sample. One week later Enoch, Kees and I were already working on a research proposal.
That was the beginning of a journey, full of interesting challenges and marked with wonderful memories of people who accompanied and supported me on my way towards the completion of this book. I would like to use this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to all of them.
First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisors, Enoch Aboh and Kees Hengeveld. I am deeply grateful to them for the enthusiasm and dedication they showed from the first to the last day of this project. Enoch, thanks for all the fruitful discussions we’ve had throughout these years, for trusting me and giving me the freedom to do things in my own way. Kees, thanks for always keeping an eye on me, inspiring me with your insightful ideas and positive attitude.
Next to my supervisors, several other people have made essential contributions to the success of this endeavor.
To begin with, I would like to express my appreciation to all my colleagues at the ACLC and the departments of General Linguistics, Slavic Languages and Cultures and English Language and Culture for being such a nice group of people and for making the University of Amsterdam such a stimulating work environment.
In particular, I would like to thank Norval Smith, who taught me the know-how of historical linguistics, supplied me with numerous references, challenged me with new data, and kept surprising me with his superb knowledge of the history of creoles. Another person who has played a major role in shaping my research skills and firing my enthusiasm for creole studies was Hans den Besten, who is sadly no longer among us. I would like to thank Hans for always being eager to share everything he knew about Afrikaans and other Dutch-based creoles (which was much more than a person could possibly know!) and for teaching me never to give up, be patient and careful and keep looking. These two great creolists demonstrated to me that the key to big discoveries is in an eye for detail.
viii
In the same breath, I would like to thank Jan Hulstijn for his interest in my work on the semantic principles of reference marking. Our discussions have definitely helped me to shape my views on this complicated matter.
A group of people deserves my deepest gratitude for helping me to edit the manuscript and to prepare it for publication. These are Hugo Cardoso, Leston Buell, Lois Kemp, Roland Pfau, Sandra Barasa and Vadim Kimmelman. Guys, thank you so much for your time and effort! I have no idea how I would have managed to complete this task without your help!
I would like to thank Bibi Janssen for helping me with the samenvatting in het
Nederlands and for being such a supportive and altruistic friend throughout the final
stages of this project. Bibs, ты звезда!
I wish to thank Fred Weerman, Jan Hulstijn, Marlyse Baptista, Norval Smith, Petra Sleeman and Pieter Muysken for accepting the invitation to be on my committee.
A special thanks is due to the six people I was lucky to share office with at different stages of my project. First of all, I would like to thank Hugo Cardoso, who is not only my ex-roommate but also a good friend. Ugu, thanks for spicing up my life with your excellent sense of humor, pasteis and bacalhau com natas. I thank Sebastian Nordhoff, always productive and focused, for spreading these vibes in our office. I thank Rachel Selbach for sharing the ups and downs of being a researcher. I thank Mark Schmalz for his undying interest for any linguistic and non-linguistic topic. Although I sometimes pretended I did not, I really enjoyed our discussions on word formation in Slavic languages, plural marking in Bambara, presidential elections in Russia, the intelligence of vegetables, the significance of Gagarin’s journey to outer space, and many-many other things. I would like to thank Vadim Kimmelman for his technical support. I would probably still be struggling with formatting if he had not shown me all those wonderful tricks you can do in Word. I thank Sterre Leufkens for the interesting discussions on transparency and learnability and for being a patient listener when I struggled with the final preparations of my manuscript.
For interesting discussions, challenging questions and constructive feedback, technical and moral support, all the shared Friday borrels and gezelligheid thanks are also due to several other (ex-) UvA colleagues. These are Alexis Dimitriadis, Anne Baker, Bart de Boer, Cecilia Odé, Dirk-Jan Vet, Els Verheugd, Elly van den Berge, Gerdien Kerssies, Gerry Wanders, Hebry Glaude, Jan de Jong, Jan-Willem van Leussen, Jeanette Schaeffer, Joke Schuit, Ingrid van Alphen, Iris Duinmeijer, Kateřina Chládková, Konrad Rybka, Lisa Lim, Margreet Dorleijn, Marjolein Cremer, Marina Dyakonova, Marlou van Rijn, Petra Sleeman, Robert Cirillo, Umberto Ansaldo and Wim Honselaar.
I would like to thank Alla Peeters-Podgajevskaja and Olga Fischer for offering me a great opportunity to continue my career at the University of Amsterdam as a teacher after I finished my project.
Many thanks are also due to several linguists outside of the UvA. I would like to thank Anthony Grant, Fernanda Pratas, Fabiola Henri, Guillaume Fon Sing, John Holm, Joseph Farquharson, Kofi Yakpo, Marlyse Baptista, Mikael Parkvall, Muhsina
ix Alleesaib, Peter Patrick, Tonjes Veenstra, Tjerk Hagemeijer, Salikoko Mufwene, Vivianne Deprez and many others for the scientific input, encouragement, hospitality and all the fun we’ve had together during various conferences and workshops.
Other two people who deserve a special mention are my good friends Margarita Gulian and Wieneke Wesseling, who agreed to be my paranymphs.
I can’t fail to mention my other good friends Angelica, Ksuha, Maria and Sandy. Girls, thanks for all the laughs, meals and drinks we’ve had together. Special thanks are also to the Pacific Park crew for all the great Friday dance parties.
I also wish to thank my dear neighbors Mariamma, Nol, Vera, Oma Agnes, Fatou, Tamara, Naomi and Bika for making Van Speijkstraat a warm home for me and my family.
My heartfelt thanks go to my family: my parents Vera and Vladimir, my grandmother Ekaterina and my aunt Elena, who instilled me with passion for research and the desire to pursue an academic career from a very early age. Their life examples and their belief in my abilities helped me in moments of despair. I deeply regret that my grandmother did not live long enough to see me complete my PhD project.
In the same breath, I thank my husband Sylvain, who supported me on my way to the completion of this book and often had to take over my duties when I needed more time for research. Sylvain, you deserve my deepest gratitude for your love and unending patience.
Finally, I wish to thank my sons Ivan and Daniil for many things, too many to be mentioned. Daniil and Ivan, this book is dedicated to you.
