The issue of linguistic distinctions in creole continua has been extensively debated. Are creole continua comprised of just an “acrolect” and a “basilect,” or do they also comprise additional varieties? Studies of variation in creole continua have been typically based on directly observed linguistic data. This study argues that perceived sociolinguistic distinctions can offer one point of departure for establishing what linguistic components constitute creole continua. Following a protocol developed within “Perceptual Dialectology” (see, e.g., Preston 1999) this study describes perceived sociolinguistic distinctions via folk linguistic descriptors elicited by means of linguistic map-drawing and labeling tasks. The aim of this study is to investigate perceived language variation in the Caribbean island of Trinidad, where Standard English historically co-exists as an official language with creolized varieties of English, which the literature generally refers to as “Trinidadian Creole English.” The main finding of this study is that Standard English has a strong perceptual association with Trinidad’s historic urban centers, while non-standard varieties collectively referred to as “dialect” or “creole” are associated with the rest of the island. The study discusses indications that linguistic boundaries—largely parallel to ethnoracial boundaries—are perceived within the standard and non-standard part of the Trinidadian continuum. One major perceived linguistic criterion for differentiation within the non-standard part of the continuum is the presence or absence of Standard English elements. The saliency of “mixed” varieties suggests that a variety located halfway between Standard English and Trinidadian Creole English could be emerging. The study concludes that the urban-rural divide and ethnoracial distinctions constitute two salient social fault lines that future studies of language variation in Trinidad should take account of while searching the Trinidadian continuum for objectively verifiable linguistic boundaries.

中文翻译：

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代表克里奥尔语中的变异：特立尼达语言变异的民间语言学观点

克里奥尔语连续体中的语言差异问题已引起广泛争论。克里奥尔语 continua 是仅由“acrolect”和“basilect”组成，还是还包括其他变体？对克里奥尔语连续体变异的研究通常基于直接观察到的语言数据。本研究认为，感知到的社会语言学差异可以为确定构成克里奥尔语连续体的语言成分提供一个出发点。遵循在“感知方言学”中开发的协议（参见，例如，Preston 1999），本研究通过语言地图绘制和标记任务引发的民间语言描述符描述了感知的社会语言学差异。本研究的目的是调查加勒比海特立尼达岛的语言变化，标准英语在历史上作为官方语言与克里奥尔化英语共存，文献通常将其称为“特立尼达克里奥尔英语”。这项研究的主要发现是标准英语与特立尼达历史悠久的城市中心有很强的感知联系，而统称为“方言”或“克里奥尔语”的非标准英语与岛上的其他地方有关。该研究讨论了在特立尼达连续体的标准和非标准部分中感知到的语言边界——在很大程度上平行于种族边界——的迹象。在连续统的非标准部分中区分的一个主要感知语言标准是标准英语元素的存在与否。“混合”变种的显着性表明，一个介于标准英语和特立尼达克里奥尔英语之间的变种可能正在出现。该研究得出的结论是，城乡差异和种族差异构成了两条显着的社会断层线，未来特立尼达语言变异研究应考虑到这些断层线，同时在特立尼达连续统一体中寻找客观可验证的语言边界。