Unity in diversity: The homogeneity of the substrate and the grammar of space in the African and Caribbean English-lexifier Creoles

Locative constructions in Sranan and Pichi, two Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creoles spoken in Suriname and in Equatorial Guinea respectively, owe substantial parts of their structure to corresponding African substrate and adstrate structures. I attribute the emergence and maintenance of these structures in the creoles to the areal-typological homogeneity of locative constructions across West and Central Africa. Common to the creoles and the African languages are the scarcity of path-incorporating prepositions, the use of general locative prepositions in both static and motion events, as well as the use of pre- or postpositional relator nouns. The two creoles reflect a large range of the structural possibilities found in African substrate and adstrate languages while maintaining a basically “African” template. At the same time, locative constructions Sranan and Pichi both manifest the effects of contact with their lexifier English, and their respective European superstrates languages Dutch and Spanish.