CREOLE AND DIALECT CONTINUA -- Editorial page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Acknowledgments -- Table of contents -- Chapter 1. Introduction: Developmental Continua -- Abstract -- 1. General issues in linguistic change -- 2. Aspects of acquisi tional studies -- 2.1 Universalist explanations of acquisition -- 2.2 The acquisition of second dialects -- 2.3 Social attitudes and language/dialect acquisition -- 2.4 Linguistic bias -- 3. The linguistic an alysis of nonstandard dialects -- 3.1 Labovian sociolinguistics -- 3.2 Language in oral discourse and pragmatics -- 3.3 Theoretical framework for oral discourse -- 3.4 Units of analysis -- 4. Creoles and noncreoles -- 4.1 Two case studies -- 4.2 Outline of chapters -- Endnotes -- Chapter 2. The Belizean Speech Community and the Use of English -- Abstract -- 1. Introduction to the history of Belize -- 2. Ethnolinguistic composition and census data -- 2.1 Amerindians -- 2.2 Creoles (Europeans, Africans, Miskitos) -- 2.3 Garifuna (Black Caribs) -- 2.4 Mestizos -- 2.5 Other groups -- 3. The language situation -- 3.1 Language policy and education -- 3.2 English and the Creole continuum -- 3.2.1 Putative origins of Creole -- 3.2.2 Lectal range -- 4. Focus on the Stann Creek district -- 4.1 Placencia and Seine Bight -- 4. 2 Samples of Belizean texts -- 4.2.1 Text 1: Basilect -- 4.2.2 Text 2: Mesolect in Creole/Carib interaction -- 4.2.3 Text 3: Acrolect -- 4.3 Garifuna -- 4.3.1 Phonological features of Garifuna -- 4.3.2 Morphological features of Garifuna -- 4.3.3 Carib women's language -- 5. Conclusion -- Endnotes -- Chapter 3. Creole Acrolects as Innovations -- Abstract -- 1. Radical creoles, postcreoles, and decreolization -- 1.1 The radical creole hypothesis -- 1.2 The postcreole hypothesis -- 1.3 Problems with radical creoles and postcreoles -- 1.4 A dynamic view of lectal development.

1.5 Decreolization as acquisition -- 2. Acrolects and standard dialects: Social aspects -- 2.1 Acrolect and standard defined -- 2.2 The label "English" in Belize -- 2.3 British and American values in Belize -- 2.4 Range of linguistic choices and attitudes -- 2.4.1 Language attitudes and gender -- 2.4.2 Language attitudes and ethnicity -- 2.4.3 Acrolects as psychosocial entities -- 3. Acrolects and standards: Linguistic aspects -- 3.1 Acrolectal texts -- 3.1.1 Text 8: Local food (Peter, 40 -- Creole, Belize-City) -- 3.1.2 Text 9: Dugu (a Black Carib variant of voodoo) (Mark, 16 -- Garifuna, Punta-Gorda) -- 3.2 Linguistic strategies in acrolects -- 3.3 Linguistic features -- 3.3.1 Phonological features -- 3.3.2 Morphological features -- 3.3.3 Syntactic features -- 3.3.4 Effects of basilectal influence in acrolects -- 4. Conclusion -- Endnotes -- Chapter 4. The Interaction of Syntax and Pragmatics in Acrolects:Topic Marking -- Abstract -- 1. Syntax and discourse features -- 1.1 The theoretical interpretation of topics -- 1.2 Topic -- 1.3 Topic and focus -- 2. Types of topic strategies -- 2.1 Topic fronting -- 2.2 Topic repetition -- 2.3 Topic presentation -- 2.3.1 Cleft, pseudo-cleft, and existential structures -- 2.3.2 Presentative particles -- 2.4 Semantic change in presentative adverbs -- 3. Distribution of topic strategies -- 3.1 Definition of discourse units -- 3.2 Analysis of topic strategies in acrolects -- 3.2.1 Lectal homogeneity -- 3.2.2 Individual style variability -- 3.2.3 Acrolect distinctiveness -- 3.3 The longitudinal dimension -- 3.4 Homogeneity in discourse and second dialect acquisition -- 3.4.1 Relatives and parataxis in acrolects -- 3.4.2 SLA and second dialect acquisition in discourse -- 4. Comparison with American English -- 4.1 Casual American sample -- 5. Pragmatic aspects of syntax -- 6. Conclusion -- Endnotes.

Chapter 5. Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Chinese -- Abstract -- 1. Chinese -- 1.1 Brief notes on Chinese history -- 1.2 The warring states: political and demographic background -- 1.3, Naming as a reflection of history -- 2. Aspects of the linguistic history of China -- 2.1 Genetic classification of the languages of China -- 2.2 Aboriginal languages in South China -- 2.3 Altaic -- 2.4 Problems in genetic classification -- 3. Main subgroups of "Chinese" -- 3.1 Chinese subgroups -- 3.2 Some phonological differences in Chinese -- 3.3 Evidence of early sociolinguistic factors -- 4. The reform of Mandarin: Guanhua, Guoyu, Putonghua -- 4.1 Beijing -- 4.2 Phonological outline of Beijing Putonghua -- 5. Varieties of Mandarin outside Beijing: Wuhan -- 5.1 Geographical and demographic outline of the Wuhan area -- 5.2 Wuhan language varieties -- 5.3 Wuhan data base -- 6. Wu varieties and Suzhou Wu -- 6.1 History of Jiangsu province -- 6.2 Wu -- 7. Conclusions -- Endnotes -- Chapter 6. Topic Mechanisms in Chinese: An Overview -- Abstract -- 1. Introduction -- 1. 1 Theoretical interpretation of topics in Chinese -- 1. 2 Types of topic strategies -- 2. Topic fronting -- 2.1 Topicalization: Fronting with gapping -- 2.1.1 Multiple topics -- 2.1.2 Topic position and given/new status -- 2.2 Left dislocation: Fronting with pronominal anaphora -- 2.3 Fronting without anaphoric binding -- 3. Topic repetition: Nominal anaphora with or without fronting -- 4. Topic presentation -- 4.1 Pre-topic particles: Topic introducers (TI) -- 4.1.1 The particle shì -- 4.1.2 Deictics -- 4.1.3 Advertíais -- 4.1.4 Verbal prepositions -- 4.1.5 B a -- 4.1.6 Béi -- 4.2 Post topic particles: Topic enders (TE) -- 4.3 Pre-comment particles: Adverbial particles (AP) -- 4.4 Post-comment particles: End particles (EP) -- 5. Summary of topic strategies -- Endnotes.

Chapter 7. Literary and Colloquial Putonghua -- Abstract -- 1. The Putonghua corpus: Methodology -- 1.1 Problemsofanalysis: Topic units -- 1. 2 Chinese varieties examined -- 1.2.1 Literary Putonghua -- 1.2.2 Colloquial Beijing Putonghua -- 2. Literature and the cultural revolution: Two New Friends -- 2.1 Sociocultural components -- 2.2 Sample of written Putonghua: Text 1: Two New Friends -- 2.2.1 Topic strategies in text 1 -- 2.3 Complete analysis of Two New Friends -- 2.4 Topic particles and psychosocial factors -- 2.4.1 Topic introducers and their rural variants in Two New Friends -- 2.6 Summary of findings in Two New Friends -- 3. Literature after the Cultural Revolution: The Matchmaker -- 3.1 Text 2: The Matchmaker (excerpts) -- 3.2 Topic Strategies in The Matchmaker -- 3.3 Topic Particles in The Matchmaker -- 3.4 Stylistic level and dialectal features -- 3.5 Comparison of The Matchmaker and Two New Friends -- 4. Beijing colloquial Putonghua -- 4.1 Informal Putonghua: sì shì tóng táng (Beijing Saga) -- 4.2 Text 3: Sample of Beijing vernacular Putonghua -- 4.3 Analysis of A Beijing Saga -- 4.5 Se mi-casual Putonghua: zhōngxuéshëng (Learning Science) -- 4.6 Conclusions: Topic marking in spoken Putonghua -- 5. Overview of topic strategies in Beijing PH -- Endnotes -- Chapter 8. Topic Strategies in Varieties of Putonghua as Second Dialects -- Abstract -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Putonghua spoken in Wuhan -- 2.1 The Wuhan corpus -- 2.2 Text 1: Wuhan non-native Putonghua -- 2.3 Topic strategies in the Wuhan corpus -- 2.3.1 General patterns -- 2.3.2 The fronting strategy -- 2.3.3 The repetition strategy -- 2.3.4 The presentation strategy -- 2.4 The non-native status of Wuhan Putonghua -- 2.5 Wuhan Putonghua: Conclusions -- 3. Comparison of Beijing and Wuhan Putonghua -- 3.1 Topic strategies in Beijing and Wuhan -- 3.2 Comparison of topic particles.

4. Wu Chinese -- 4.1 The Suzhou oral narrative -- 4.2 Text 2: Suzhou Wu (narrative style) -- 4.3 Topic strategies in Suzhou Wu -- 4.3.1 Fronting -- 4.3.2 Repetition -- 4.3.3 Presentative strategy: Topic particles -- 4.4 Stylistic shifts -- 4.5 Suzhou Wu: Conclusions -- 5. Comparison of native and non-native varieties of Chinese -- 6. Conclusions: Toward a universal view of topic processes -- Endnotes -- Chapter 9. Conclusions: Pragmatic Universals in Second Dialect Acquisition -- Abstract -- 1. Patterns of topic marking: Summary -- 2. Topic marking in the Belizean continuum -- 2.1 Topic consistency in English-based continua -- 2.2 Topic marking in formal and written styles -- 2.3 Topic marking by listeners -- 3. Patterns of topic marking in Chinese -- 4. Dialect versus standard: Sociolinguistic universale -- 4.1 Causes of pattern consistency -- 4.2 Grammaticalization in topic marking strategies -- 4.3 The syntax of discourse -- 5. Conclusions -- 6. Postscript: Directions for education--from language to social change -- Endnotes -- Bibliography -- Index.