Possessive constructions in a language contact situation: Tahitian French

This study forms part of a research project on the description of French as spoken in Tahiti. Tahitian French consists of a range of features largely resulting from contact-induced change which distinguish it from standard French. This particular aspect of the research examines the influence of Tahitian patterns in forming non-standard possessive constructions in the French of Tahitians. The study proposes to determine if Tahitian French constructions are affected by the Polynesian inalienable/alienable 'o/a' possessive classification system present in Tahitian, Tahitian VSO word order as opposed to French SVO, and the differing prepositional systems. This work in progress proposes some observations on the possessive system of Tahitian French, establishing the existence of stable structures within parameters of variation. These structures often do not conform to standard French, but show adaptation, though not necessarily directly, of French structures to Tahitian patterns.