The Acquisition of Tense, Modal and Aspect markers in Jamaican Creole

Abstract

This work offers an analysis of the development of Tense, Modal and Aspect (TMA) markers as observed in the spontaneous speech of 6 children acquiring Jamaican Creole (JC). In JC, TMA markers overtly show a rich functional hierarchy, which is generally found across creole languages, and is arguably universal. The analyses detail how this functional structure is acquired, revealing that children are knowledgeable of the rules governing TMA combinations and do not entertain target-inconsistent orders. This suggests that children are aware of the articulate cartographic hierarchy as attested in the target language. Additionally, we note that the distribution of the markers in child production is skewed in the same direction as in the input data; however, differences between children’s productions as compared to their linguistic environment provide evidence that input alone cannot account for the development of TMA markers in child production.