The Role of Language Contact in the Development of Three Mauritian Pragmatic Markers

What is it about?

Traditionally the focus of Creole studies has been on their history and structure, but there is now increased interest in their communicative functions. The focus of this study is on three pragmatic markers in Mauritian Creole: dizon, savedir and koumadir (elements whose meaning depends on the context, such as ‘I mean’ in English). In addition to outlining which functions each of these markers shows in our data, we explore how language contact with French has affected their development in Mauritian Creole. We consider linguistic factors, such as similarities between French and Mauritian Creole, as well as extra-linguistic factors, including degree of bilingualism and psychological links to the donor language. Koumadir is the oldest marker, dating back to the 1800s and can be considered a typical Creole marker. Despite borrowing elements from French: comment/comme ‘how/like’ and dire ‘to say’, it has followed its own trajectory independently from French. Both dizon and savedir entered Mauritian Creole more recently, but whilst dizon mirrors its French equivalent disons in functions and acts as a prestige signal, savedir has become more integrated into Creole and acquired a new subjective function. Although extra-linguistic factors may play a more significant role when considering broad outcomes of language contact, we conclude that linguistic factors can largely account for differences between the markers’ further developments after entering Mauritian Creole.

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