Origins of a preposition: Chinese Pidgin English long and its implications for Pidgin grammar

Abstract

This paper examines the origins and grammatical properties of a preposition in Chinese Pidgin English – <i>long</i> – which has not received much discussion. The significance of <i>long</i> is that it is highly multifunctional and semantically versatile. <i>Long</i> is used to indicate a range of semantic roles: comitative, benefactive, malefactive and source. A second function of <i>long</i> is to mark coordination. It will be shown that a substantial part of the syntax and semantics of <i>long</i> can be attributed to substrate transfer of a corresponding Cantonese morpheme <i>tung4</i> 'with'. The creation of <i>long</i> does not conform to the traditional thesis of simply taking the phonetic form from the lexifier language and deriving the grammar from the substrate language. It will be argued that the emergence of <i>long</i> is a case of multiple etymologies which involves the recombination of phonological, syntactic and semantic features from both English and Cantonese. Findings from new CPE sources also suggest a need for re-examining the historical connections between CPE and other Pidgin English varieties of the Pacific region.