Beware bambai-lest it be apprehensive

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to draw attention to the use of the Kriol particlebambaias an apprehensive, i.e. a main clause modal marker indicating that anevent will potentially occur but is undesirable, with associated pragmatics ofwarning or threat. This use is considered an extension from the temporal/sequential function of this particle that is widespread in creole languages ofthe Pacific, including Kriol. We consider two potential motivations for this func-tional extension: substrate influence and independent grammaticalisation. Thefirst is plausible insofar as dedicated apprehensive markers are a common traitin Australian languages, including in those that are currently in contact withKriol and/or have previously been considered potential substrate languages,such as in the account of creolisation for Roper Kriol by Munro (2004). Appre-hensive markers are also found in languages which could have influenced theprecursor pidgins in New South Wales and Queensland as they expanded north-wards towards the Northern Territory. In fact we show that the apprehensivefunction ofbambaiis more widely distributed in pidgin and creole languagesof Australia and the Pacific than previously assumed, which could even point,potentially, to an earlier development in Australia. The possibility of indepen-dent grammaticalisation cannot, however, be excluded, since parallel develop-ments of temporal markers to apprehensive markers are attested in a numberof geographically distant and unrelated languages. The plausible link betweenthe two functions is the semanticisation of an invited inference from‘eventabout to occur’to‘event to be avoided’. We conclude that these two motivationsare not necessarily mutually exclusive, but that both are consistent with theidea of instantaneous grammaticalisation through substrate influence in creolegenesis. This paper thus contributes to our understanding of potential diachronicsources of the cross-linguistic category of apprehensive as well as to an analysisof this function in the Kriol modal system and its origins, and a more nuancedpicture of regional variation in Kriol temporal and modal expressions. Show more