Since 2019 I have been working on presenting in-depth semantic analyses for the meaning of temporal and aspectual expressions in Australian Kriol. Temporal and aspectual expression essentially refers to the strategies that Kriol speakers use to locate events in time, and to provide a certain kind of view on that event.
Although Kriol is spoken across a wide area of northern Australia (including both the Kimberley region and much of the Northern Territory), little description on this aspect of the grammar is available. I thought it was important to understand temporality and aspect in Kriol especially because it is a crucial part of every sentence. I wanted to understand whether this part of Kriol grammar is similar to English, traditional languages or different from both.
I ended up writing a PhD thesis on this topic, which you can download here.
I have also written several articles based on the work in my thesis. A recurrent point in this work is that although temporal and aspectual expressions in Kriol show some resemblances to both English and traditional Aboriginal languages, there is also a lot of features which are distinct, and unique to Kriol. This stands as a reminder of how important it is to take seriously the idea that Kriol is a separate language from both English and traditional Aboriginal languages. Assuming too much similarity to any source language can result in serious miscommunications in the real world.
Relevant publications:
Brown, C. (2023). Temporality and aspect in Kununurra Kriol: Toginabad bla taim garra Kriol [PhD Thesis, University of Western Australia].
Brown, C., & Ponsonnet, M. (2024). Event plurality and the verbal suffix ‑(a)bad in Australian Kriol. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 39(1), 187–218. https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.00126.bro
Brown, C (submitted). The temporal semantics and pragmatics of Kriol na. Lingua
Connor Brown - Linguist 