Habitual and imperfective in Guyanese Creole

Abstract

This paper describes variation in the grammar of aspect in Guyanese Creole. In particular, the various grammaticalized strategies for conveying ha-bituality, progressivity and imperfectivity are discussed. The paper contributes to an ongoing debate regarding the function of various preverbal markers and their interrelationships (see Bickerton, 1975; Edwards, 1984; Gibson, 1988; Ja-ganauth, 1994; Rickford, 1987; Winford, 1993a). Choice of preverbal marker is shown to be strongly conditioned by the stativity of the predicate (in the case of habituals). Drawing on the insights of Weinreich (1953), it is suggested that partial congruence between relatively independent grammatical systems encourages recurrent interlingual identifications.