Some Non-standard Features of Bahamian Dialect Syntax

acrolect adjectives adverb ain't amongst analysis anaphoric Bahamas Bahamian Dialect basilectal form Bickerton 1975 Black Bahamian Black English Black speakers Black speech Caribbean Cont contexts continuum contraction copula environments count nouns decreolization deep structure deletion discussed distinction dummy subject element equative examples expressions Family Island frequency GC basilect give grammar Gullah Guyanese Creole habitual Haiti indeterminate inserted Interviewed Jamaican Creole Labov lack of dummy language lexical items Linguistics Loc Ving mesolectal speakers modals mussy Nassau negative concord NEGCONCORD rule never non-definites non-past copula non-Standard non-stative non-subject NP complement obligatory occurs omitted optional rule past copula past participle past reference phonological rule positive possible preceding pronoun copy relative clause seems similar stative verbs surface syntactic syntax Table 19 tabulated tense Tok Pisin topic underlying copula variation varieties of English verbal negator vowel White speakers zero zero copula