Frase complexa em cabo-verdiano (variedade de Santiago): um estudo da integração entre cláusulas

Abstract

Cape Verdean Creole is the mother tongue of most inhabitants of the islands that constitute the Republic of Cape Verde, where Portuguese is the only official language. Cape Verdean is a Portuguese-based lexical creole, its lexicon mostly comes from 16th century Portuguese, its main lexifier. However, a considerable proportion of the Cape Verdean grammatical system derives from the African substrate, especially Wolof, Mandinka and Timené (QUINT, 2000; 2006), whereas many other Cape Verdean peculiar features are also due to the restructuring of Portuguese material. While there have been various studies on Santiago Cape Verdean, complex sentences have only rarely been investigated for this variety, and even more rarely using reliable corpora. Therefore, it has appeared relevant to undertake the study of the different levels of clause integration based on a spontaneous spoken corpus of basilectal Santiago Cape Verdean. The choice of a basilectal variety was linked with the concern to illustrate the specificities of Santiago Cape Verdean in contrast with Portuguese. The present research aims at analysing the various degrees of clause integration in complex sentences as attested in traditional Cape Verdean oral narratives, and at elucidating the linguistic factors that contribute to a lesser or greater clause integration. From a theoretical point of view, this study is based on the works of the North American school of Functional Linguistics (GIVÓN, 1979, 1995, 2001; HOPPER; THOMPSON, 1980; HOPPER; TRAUGOT, 1993, 2003; LONGACRE, 1985, 2007; LEHMANN, 1988). The data analysed within the scope of this research are part of the Traditional Histories of Cape Verde corpus administered by the research unit LLACAN (Langage, Langues et Cultures d'Afrique – UMR8135). The sample selected for this study comprises twelve traditional oral narratives, collected between 2004 and 2015, in twelve different locations in the interior of the island of Santiago. These data were treated using the software ELAN, specially designed for linguistic data analysis. Based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data, this research endeavours to answer the following key question: How can we draw a continuum for clause integration in Santiago Cape Verdean? The data analysis is based on cross-linguistic typological studies such as Cristofaro (2003) and Andrews (2007) for subordination, Haspelmath (2007) and Mauri (1981) for coordination, and Evans (2007) and Cristofaro (2016) for insubordination. For the analysis of clause integration, this study is based on the parameters proposed by Lehmann (1988): i) hierarchical downgrading; ii) syntactic level; iii) desententialization of the subordinate clause; iv) grammaticalization of the main verb; v) interlacing; and vi) explicitness of linking. The results show that, in Santiago Cape Verdean, the continuum of clause integration is established as follows: complement > relative > adverbial > insubordinate > coordinate. The least integrated clauses are juxtaposed additive coordinate clauses, whereas the most integrated are motion phasal complement clauses. The results also help us define a prototype of clause integration in Santiago Cape Verdean, whereby the least integrated clauses are characterized by: i) illocutionary force; ii) juxtaposition; iii) predicate encoded by a finite verb; and iv) lack of interlacing. On the other hand, the most integrated clauses are marked by: i) lack of illocutionary force; ii) hierarchical downgrading; iii) predicate encoded by a non-finite verb; iv) absence of a connective; and v) interlacing.