Nominal constituents in French lexiier creoles Probing the structuring role of grammaticalization* Viviane Déprez Rutgers University/ISC,CNRS he paper ofers a comparative study of the syntactic structure of nominal con- stituents in French Lexiier Creoles (FLC). In spite of the variability observed in the distribution of FLC determiners, the paper argues that FLC have a common functional architecture and presents both conceptual and empirical arguments in support of this view. Order variability, the paper proposes, is the result of extensive phrasal movement inside this common architecture that is triggered by the functional heads of FLC. Whether a given FLC determiner is a functional head or not is taken to relect grammaticalization processes modeled in the Minimalist framework. A novel approach to grammaticalization and particularly to ‘semantic bleaching’ is shown to have a structuring efect that accounts for the ordering diferences manifest across FLC determiners. Keywords: French based Creoles, determiners, DP, plural, demonstratives, grammaticalization, deinite, indeinite, phrasal movement 1. Introduction As is obvious to even the most casual comparative observer, French Lexiier Cre- oles (FLC) are quite remarkable in featuring both a notable uniformity in the inventory of their overt nominal determiners and a rather striking diversity in the syntactic distribution of these elements. For instance, the indeinite singular * My warmest gratitude to the informants who have generously contributed their native speak- ers knowledge and sometimes their own precious insights about their language. hanks in par- ticular to E.Vedrine, W. Paul, F.Canal and W.Douce, D.Fattier for Haitian Creole, D. Adone, F.Henri, D.Guillemin, P.Baker, D.Veronique for Mauritian Creole, O.Cyrille, C. Broussous, for Guadeloupean Creole, T.Montoute for Martinique Creole. For fruitful comments at various stages of development of this work, I would also like to thanks R. Kayne, R.Larson, V. Dayal, M. Baker, and E.Aboh. All remaining errors are my own. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 22:2 (2007), 263–308. issn 020–0 / e-issn –70 © John Benjamins Publishing Company