The evolution of copula systems in West African Pidgin: A uniformitarian perspective

This chapter presents the first comparative genetic and areal study of copula systems in West African Pidgin (WAP). The typological analysis of the copula systems of the three WAP varieties Pichi (Equatorial Guinea), Cameroon Pidgin, and Ghanaian Pidgin reveals a founder signal of their ancestor Krio (Sierra Leone) and its Yoruba substrate, as well as an areal signal from the African adstrates and European superstrates spoken in their respective ecologies. The strength of the founder signal increases in the order Ghanaian Pidgin < Cameroon Pidgin < Pichi, that of the areal signal in the inverse order Pichi < Cameroon Pidgin < Ghanaian Pidgin, reflective of the depth of social entrenchment of each variety in its ecology. Social entrenchment is shorthand for the demographic strength of Krio founder communities, the social functions of the WAP variety, and the periodization and extent of vernacularization. Irrespective of the differences, all three ecologies feature small founder communities, large majorities for whom the WAP variety functions as a lingua franca, and the absence of institutional standardization. Nevertheless, not pidginization, nor other types of “abnormal transmission”, but uniformitarian principles of genetic transmission, areal diffusion and adaptation have colluded in shaping the copula systems of the various WAP varieties in ways specific to each ecology. This study also seeks to refine the methodology for the areal-typological study of West African copula systems in general by problematizing the notion of “copula”. In doing so, this study provides fascinating new insights on the rich functional and formal differentiation of nominal, locative, and property predication in West African Pidgin and its African adstrate languages.