Languages in contact Socio-spatial diversity: Language varieties

1
Languages in contactSocio-spatial
diversityLanguage varieties

• Vernacular, Standard, Lingua Franca, Pidgin,
  Creole

2
Vernacular

• Three defining characteristics
• Lack of codification and elaboration
• A language learned at home
• Functionally restricted

3
Standard

• A Standard can be defined as the variety that has
  undergone some linguistic processing so that
  there is a set of widely accepted rules for it
  (eg for spelling) and that it can serve both
  official and everyday functions of a state

4
Formal Standard

• A formal standard applies to the written language
  and to spoken situations that are the most
  formal. Its rules are set by authorities
  (language academies, editors, dictionaries, etc)

5
Informal Standard

• Applies to spoken language in everyday use. It is
  determined by speakers who make judgments as to
  whether a form is acceptable or not. It is
  characterized by multiple norms of acceptability,
  and defined by the absence of socially
  stigmatized forms.

6
A continuum of standardness

• V IS FS

7
How does a standard emerge?

• Sometimes a standard variety develops out of a
  local vernacular that has attained political,
  socioeconomic or cultural superiority over other
  vernaculars (English, French, Spanish)
• Sometimes a standard is created artificially with
  some political or social objective in mind
  (Katharevusa in Greece, Nynorsk in Norway)
• Countries with a colonial past may use the
  variety of the previous hegemony as a standard,
  alongside a standardized local code

8
How good is a standard?

• Linguistically, standards are not any better than
  vernaculars, which is proven by the fact that any
  vernacular can become a standard
• Socially, standards have more prestige, but that
  is an artificial not a natural differentiation
• Standards do have a positive impact as they
  enhance cross-regional communication, promote
  literacy etc.
• When the prestige of a standard, however, is
  influenced by racial, religious or class biases
  the results can be catastrophic

9
Lingua Franca

• Any variety that serves as the tool of
  communication for people who speak varieties
  which are not mutually intelligible

10
Examples of lingua francas

• Swahili in many African nations like Tanzania and
  Zaire
• Russian in the former USSR
• English in several tourist destinations, and in
  the scientific community
• Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea

11
Bilingualism

• Individual bilingualism
• two native languages in the mind
• Fishman a psycholinguistic phenomenon
• Societal bilingualism
• A society in which two languages are used but
  where relatively few individuals are bilingual
• Fishman a sociolinguistic phenomenon
• Stable bilingualism
• persistent bilingualism in a society over several
  generations
• Language evolution
• Language shift
• Diglossia

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• BENEFITS OF BILINGUALISM
• (California Department of Education, Language
  Policy and Leadership Office)
• Enhanced academic and linguistic competence in
  two languages
• Development of skills in collaboration
  cooperation
• Appreciation of other cultures and languages
• Cognitive advantages
• Increased job opportunities
• Expanded travel experiences
• Lower high school drop out rates
• Higher interest in attending colleges and
  universities

13
Diglossia

• Fergusons definition (1959) the side-by-side
  existence of historically structurally related
  language varieties
• the Low variety takes over the outdated High
  variety
• Fishmans reformulation (1967) a diglossic
  situation can occur anywhere where two language
  varieties (even unrelated ones) are used in
  functionally distinct ways
• the Low variety loses ground to the superposed
  High variety
• problematic as it creates an opposite situation
  to widespread bilingualism

Fishmans reformulation Fishmans reformulation Fishmans reformulation
diglossia - diglossia
bilingualism Everyone in a community knows both H and L, which are functionally differentiated An unstable, transitional situation in which everyone in a community knows both H and L, but are shifting to H
bilingualism Speakers of H rule over speakers of L A completely egalitarian speech community , where there is no language variation
14
Diglossic situation

• Four examples

15
Diglossic situation functions of H vs. L
Ferguson, Charles. 1972. Diglossia. In Pier
Paolo Giglioli (ed.). Language and Social
Context. Harmondsworth Penguin, 232-251. In
Ralph Fasold. 1985. The Sociolinguistics of
Society. Oxford Blackwell, 35.
16
LANGUAGES IN INDONESIA 300 languages and
dialects are spoken in Indonesia, but Bahasa
Indonesia is the official and most widely spoken
tongue. Its common use has helped unify the 200
million citizens since Indonesias independence
in 1949. Bahasa Indonesia is based on Malay, long
the market language of coastal towns, and it
contains elements of Chinese, Indian, Dutch, and
English. Today, television programs, major
newspapers, schools, and universities all use
Bahasa Indonesia.
Example of L moving towards H becoming national
language
Do you speak English? Bisa bicara Bahasa
Inggris?
17
Language choice

• code switching
• changing from one language to an other
• situational switching
• metaphorical switching
• code-mixing
• speaking in one language but using pieces from
  another
• style shifting
• standard English vs. afro-american vernacular
• language borrowing

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Example of code-switching in the Amazon

• Tariana is spoken by about 100 people in the
  northwest Amazonia (Brazil). Other languages in
  the area is e.g. Tucano (almost a lingua franca),
  Baniwa and Arawak (the two latter related to
  Tariana). The area is known for its language
  group exogamy and institutionlized
  multilingualism. Language choice is motivated by
  power relationship and by status, and there are
  strict rules for code- switching. Code-mixing
  with Tucano is considered a language violation
  using elements of Baniwa is funny while mixing
  different Tariana dialects implies that one
  cannot speak Tariana properly. Overusing
  Portuguese is associated with an Indian who is
  trying to be better than his peers.

Aikhenvald (2003) Language in Society 321-21
19
Sociolinguistic classification

• Ferguson (1966) distinguished between five
  language types based on prestige (p) and vitality
  (v)
• Vernacular
• unstandardized native language of speech
  community (-p, v)
• Standard
• native language of a speech community codified in
  dictionaries and grammars (p, v)
• Classical
• language codified in dictionaries and grammars
  which is no longer spoken (p, -v)
• Pidgin
• hybrid language with lexicon from one language
  and grammar from another language (-p, -v)
• Creole
• language acquired by children of speakers of
  pidgin, or subsequently by speaker or Creole (-p,
  v)

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Outcomes of Language Contact

• Language Death no native speakers
• Language Shift One language replaces another
• Language Maintenance A relatively stable bi-/
  multilingual society
• Pidgin a rudimentary system of communication
• Creole creation of a new language based on
  pidgins or languages in contact
• Lingua Franca
• Global Languages

21
Endangered Languages

• Prediction half of the approximately 6,000
  languages may become extinct within 100 years.
• 90 Alaskan indigenous
• 2 being acquired by children.
• 90 Australia Aboriginal
• 20 being used by all age groups.
• 175 Native American
• 20 being acquired by children.

22
Pidgins Creoles Around the World
23
PIDGINS CREOLES


24
PIDGINS
PIDGIN arises in a (new) contact situation
involving more than two linguistic
groups groups have no shared language groups
need to communicate regularly, but for limited
purposes, such as trade is nobody's native
language vocabulary (typically) from one of the
Langua-ges ( Lexifier Language) grammar is a
kind of crosslanguage compromi-se with influence
from universals of L2 learning no elaborate
morphological structures

25
pidcreo 00
26
Lifecycles of Pidgins

• Jargon Phase contains great individual variation
• Stable Pidgin contains both simple and complex
  sentences
• Expanded Pidgin complex grammar, and has a
  developed word formation component

27
Features of a Stable Pidgin

• Lack of surface grammatical complexity
• Lack of morphological complexity
• Semantic transparency
• Vocabulary reduction

28
CREOLES
Creole arises in a (new) contact situation
involving more than two linguistic groups is
the native language of a speech
community vocabulary (typically) from one of
the Languages ( Lexifier Language) grammar is
a kind of crosslanguage compromise with influence
from universals of L2 learning some creoles are
nativized pidgins

29
1. The Slave Trade

• The forcible exile of over 12 million Africans to
  work the plantations of European colonists.

30
Profile of a Slave Ship

• Name of ship Zong
• Left Sãn Tomé 6 September 1781
• Slaves on board 440
• White crew 17
• Arrived in Jamaica 27 November 1781
• Slaves deceased 60
• Crew deceased 7
• Slaves sick on arrival, likely to die greater
  than 60
• Price per slave in Jamaica 20-40 pounds
• from The Memoirs of Granville-Sharp
• (text p. 284)

31
Two Locations

• Fort Creole developed at fortified posts along
  the west African coast, where European forces
  held slaves until the arrival of the next ship.
• Guinea Coast Creole English
• Plantation Creole developed on plantations in
  the New World colonies under the dominance of
  different European languages.
• Jamaican Creole Jamaica English
• Negerhollands Virgin Islands Dutch
• Haitian Creole Haiti French
• Papiamento Netherlands Antilles Spanish
• Angolar Sãno Tomé Portuguese

32
2. Trade

• Naga Pidgin
• Contemporary pidgin spoken by peoples in mountain
  regions of north-east India.
• Acts as lingua franca (29 languages)
• Originated as a market language in Assam in the
  19th century among the Naga people
• Undergoing creolization among small groups like
  the Kacharis in the town of Dimapur, and among
  the children of interethnic marriages.

33
3. European settlement

• movement of European settlers to places where
• the indigenous population had not been decimated
  or moved into reservations
• a slave population did not form the labor force
• Fanakalo
• spoken in parts of South Africa
• vocabulary from Zulu, and some from English
  Afrikaans)
• stable pidgin, shows no signs of creolizing

34
4. War

• Korean Bamboo English
• American wars in Asia (Japan, Korea, Vietnam,
  Thailand)
• marginal, unstable pidgin

35
5. Labor Migration

• within colonized countries, people from different
  ethnic groups may be drawn into a common work
  sphere without being forced
• Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea (Pacific Islands)

36
pidcreo 00
37
An example of English Based Pidgins

• Hawaiian Pidgin English

38
Hawaiian Pidgin English

• The Foundations
• Hawaiian Pidgins were necessitated by the contact
  between American merchants returning from China.
• At Hawaiian ports, some Chinese crew members
  stayed behind.
• The Hawaiian natives and the Chinese sailors
  couldnt understand one another, thus the
  creation of a trade language was necessary.
• The new language was a mixture of both, and aided
  in the communication between two linguistically
  divided people.
• The language created has morphed into the unique
  Hawaiian Pidgin that it is today.
• The Hawaiian Pidgin English is English based, but
  consists of 7 diverse languages.

39
Hawaiian Pidgin English(see http//www.une.edu.au
/langnet/hce.htm)

• Todays Usage
• Hawaiian Pidgins are spoken by many people who
  live in Hawaii, but mostly by teenagers.
• Most people raised in Hawaii, regardless of race
  or social class can understand this Pidgin to an
  extent.
• With words from other languages making up the
  Pidgin, some believe it sounds like improper
  English.

'OL KING KAM 'Ol King Kam He one funny 'ol
man One funny 'ol man he waz He like fo kau
kau At his bruddah's luau An kanikapila awl night
Wit his kuz
40
Romance Based Pidgin Lingua Franca

• A trade language used around the Mediterranean
• The only remnants of the language are found in
  the nursery rhymes of children in Jerusalem.
• used as a counting-out rhyme
• Characteristics
• Have had a limited vocabulary
• Have a sharply circumscribed grammar
• Lack verb tenses and case endings

41
Motu Based Pidgin

• The Foundations
• Hiri Motu is a language of Papua New Guinea.
• Piginization of Motu
• Influenced by English, Tok Pisin, and Polynesian
  languages.
• 90 lexical similarity with Motu
• Word order tends to be OSV while most pidgins are
  SVO

42
Motu Based Pidgin

• Example of Hiri Motu Text
• Sapos yu kaikai planti pinat, bai yu kamap
  strong olsem phantom. Fantom, yu pren tru bilong
  mi. Inap yu ken helpim mi nau? Fantom, em i go
  we?
• Translation
• If you eat plenty of peanuts, you will come up
  strong like the phantom. Phantom, you are a true
  friend of mine. Are you able to help me now?
  Where did he go?
• (famous comic strip in Papua New Guinea)

43
Whats the difference?

• Pidgins
• Is NOT a mother tongue
• Form of communication between two mutually
  unintelligible languages

• Creoles
• IS a mother tongue
• Larger vocabulary
• Greater linguistic range, capable of being spoken
  quicker

Crucial Difference Pidgins have no native
speakers, while Creoles do!!!
44
PIDGINS CREOLES
are all alike and characterized by a lack of
morphology ? a lack of 'exotic' sounds ? a
lack of complex C-cluster ? SVO word order
? in Creoles only particles indicating tense,
mood, and aspect (TMA) ?

45
pidcreo 00
46
PIDGINS CREOLES
p t ts tš k kw q qw ?
p' t' tl ts' tš' k' kw' q' qw'
b d g
l s š x xw X Xw
m n (N)
r l

w y
Chinook Jargon consonant phonemes
47
PIDGINS CREOLES
Singular Dual Trial Plural
1st ex. mi mitupela mitripela mipela
1st in. yumitupela yumitripela yumipela
2nd yu yutupela yutripela yupela
3rd em tupela tripela ol
Tok Pisin pronouns
48
PIDGINS CREOLES
inflectional morphology ? Kitiiba tense
suffixes Tok Pisin transitive suffix Hiri
Motu causative affix Chinese Pidgin
Russian reflexive suffix imperfective s.
Sranan negative prefix Berbice Dutch
Creole three aspect s.

49
PIDGINS CREOLES
SVO-word-order ? Caribeean Creoles SVO Indic
Ocean Creoles SVO Hiri Motu SOV OSV SVO Pid
gin Delaware SOV SVO Chinese Pidgin Russian
SOV Nagamese SOV Pidgin Yimas SOV OSV

50
PIDGINS CREOLES
placement of the negative element(s)
Papiamentu mi no ta bini 'I nega. future
come' / 'I'm not coming' Fr.Guiana Creole mo
pa te travaille 'I neg. tense work' / 'I hadn't
worked' Berbice Dutch Creole ek suk mu lasan
eni ka 'I want go leave 3pl neg.' / 'I didn't
want to leave them' Chinook Jargon halo nika
kumtux 'neg. I understand' / 'I don't
understand' Pidgin Delaware Matta ne kamuta
'neg. I steal' / 'I didn't steal it'
51
Papiamentu

• What? A creole based on Spanish, Portuguese, and
  Dutch, with influences from West African and
  Amerindian languages
• Where? The ABC islands of the Caribbean (Aruba,
  Bonaire, and Curaçao)
• Who? 329K total speakers, 20K who speak it as a
  second language

52
(No Transcript)
53
Language Characteristics Lexicon

• About 60 of the lexicon comes from Spanish and
  Portuguese (noted as Ib.)
• Ex No lubida! Mi ta sinti bo falta
• About 25 comes from Dutch (noted as Du.)
• Ex (Masha) danki, Hende (Hòmber/Muhe)
• The remaining 15 comes from West African
  languages, Arawakan languages, and others
• Often in creoles, the superstratum language
  supplies the lexicon, where the substratum
  supplies the structure (and such lexical items as
  toponyms)

54
Language Characteristics Phonology

• Some examples
• Emphatic nasalization of vowels before ?
• Lack of word-final voiced obstruents
• Use of tone to distinguish identical words
• Allowance of CC coda clusters, complex onset
  clusters
• Phonemic inventory similar to that of a typical
  Romance language, with obvious Germanic
  influences
• Ex n (with allophones ? ñ) h x e ? è o ò y ø

55
Language Characteristics Grammar

• Language Bioprogramme Hypothesis
• General creole characteristics
• No case system (accusative case as a catch-all)
• mi (from Sp. mi or Port. mim), bo (from
  Port vos) mi ta invitá bo (I am inviting
  you)
• Lack of verb conjugation
• Mi bai, bo bai, e bai, nos bai, boso bai, nan bai
  
• Tense, aspect, and mode specified with separate
  words, rather than coded into words
• Mi ta skirbi, Mi ta skirbiendo, Mi a skirbi, Mi
  tabata skirbiendo, Mi lo skirbi
• Word order generally Subject-Verb-Object

56
History A Brief Overview

• Earliest inhabitants of the islands were the
  Caiquetio Indians who had come over from northern
  coast of present-day Venezuela and spoke a
  language of the Arawak family
• 1499 Spaniards discover the islands, dub them
  las islas inútiles
• 1527 Spain colonizes the islands
• Indians either die from exposure to new diseases,
  are hunted down for cannibalism under decree from
  the church, or are shipped to Hispaniola as
  workers
• However, Indians die too quickly to be effective
  workers, giving rise to the need for African
  slaves

57
History A Brief Overview

• Because of the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), the
  Spanish could not explore in Africa, so they had
  to get slaves through the Portuguese
  intermediaries
• The islands functioned as a way-station when
  ships would stop, but were generally left
  sparsely populated (except for the notable
  population of Portuguese-speaking Sephardic Jews)
  and scantily defended
• After the founding of the West Indies Company
  (1621), the Dutch were dedicated to establishing
  themselves militarily and commercially in the New
  World. They landed on Curaçao in 1634, and the
  other two islands within two years, ending
  Spanish domination there.

58
History A Brief Overview

• With the Dutch as such a long-lasting influence
  over the islands (all are still possessions of
  the Netherlands), one might expect Papiamentu to
  have developed into a Dutch-based creole, rather
  than Iberian with a certain amount of Dutch
  influence. However, the Dutch were never
  interested in the linguistic aspect of domination
  and slavery, and Spanish remained a lingua franca
  of the area. Also, the Catholic church took
  pains to reach out to the local population in
  their own language, Papiamentu, helping to
  solidify it in the state they found it
  predominantly Iberian-based.

59
History A Dispute

• There continues to be a good deal of argument as
  to whether Papiamentu is a Spanish-based creole
  with some Portuguese influence or a
  Portuguese-based creole relexified by Spanish.
  This argument calls into question when Papiamentu
  was formed.
• If it is a Portuguese creole, it would have had
  to have been formed by the African slaves still
  in Africa or in transit to the New World.
  Papiamentu does show similarites to Cape Verdean
  Creole, lending support to this hypothesis.
  During the entirety of the slave trade, Cape
  Verde saw approximately 100,000 slaves pass
  through its ports.

60
History A Dispute

• If it is a Spanish creole, it would have had to
  have been formed on the islands themselves
  through direct contact with the Spaniards, of
  which there was little, since they were
  frequently absentee landlords. However, there
  was constant contact with Spanish missionaries
  and Spanish-speaking settlements on the northern
  coast of South America.

61
Current Status of Papiamentu

• As it now stands, Papiamentu is in no danger of
  extinction. It is used in all domains, public
  and private. It is taught in primary schools,
  but Spanish, a more prestigious language, and
  Dutch, the official language, are used for later
  education. Although Papiamentu does not have a
  social stigma attached to it, most people on the
  islands are multilingual for commercial purposes.
  It is used in TV (including news broadcasting),
  radio, newspapers, and books, having a long
  literary tradition.
• Orthography in use is a point of contention
  between Aruba and the other two islands, as Aruba
  uses a more etymological orthography, whereas
  Curaçao and Bonaire use one more phonemic.

62
Tok Pisin
63
Tok Pisin
64
Papua New Guinea
Independence 1975
65
Melanesian Pidgin
Tok Pisin Papua New Guinea Bislama Vanuatu Pijin
Solomon Islands
66
Tok Pisin
Superstrate language English Substrate
language Austronesian and Papuan languages
67
Creolisation
In urban centers, the children of mixed couples
learn Tok Pisin as their first language. Thus,
Tok Pisin is changing from an extended pidgin
to a creole language.
68
Tok Pisin Vocabulary
The bulk of the vocabulary comes from English
(i.e. the superstrate language).
In addition, Tok Pisin includes words from
various Austronesian and Papuan languages (e.g.
Tolai, Malay).
Finally, Tok Pisin includes some words of German
origin (e.g. gumi, beten, raus)
69
Tok Pisin Word Formation
gras gras/hair/fur
mausgras moustache
gras bilong hed hair grass belong head
gras belong fes beard grass belong face
gras antap long ai eyebrow grass on top of
long eye
70
Tok Pisin - Vocabulary
spak (spark) drunk nogut (no
good) bad baimbai (by and by) soon sekan
(shake hands) to make peace kilim (kill
him) to kill /hit /beat pisin
(pigeon) bird / pidgin gras
(grass) gras /hair /fur
71
Tok Pisin - Vocabulary
Tolai lapun old kumul bird of
paradise palai lizard Malay binatang insect
lombo chilli sayor vegetable leaf
72
Tok Pisin - Vocabulary
German gumi rubber beten pray raus get
out bros chest
73
Plural marker
(1) nil nil spines needle needle
(2) SG PL yu yu-pela bik haus bik-pela
haus
-pela fellow
(3) SG PL man ol man
ol all
74
Pronouns
em he / she / it SUBJ him / her / it OBJ
yu you SG yutupela you two DUAL yutripela y
ou three TRIAL yupela you all PL
75
Causative/transitive marker
(1) Em i rit He is reading. Em i ritim
buk Hes reading a book.
(2) Wara i boil pinis The water has
boiled. Meri i boilim wara pinis The woman has
boiled the water.
(3) Bai mi rait. Ill write. Bai i raitim
pas. Ill write a letter.
make him gt makim boil him gt tellim
76
Word Order
(1) mi kukim rais. I cook rice I cooked the
rice.
77
Complex Sentences
(1) Mi no save. Ol I wokim dispela haus. I dont
know (that) they work in this house.
(2) Mi no save olsem ol i wokim dispela haus. I
didnt know that they built this house.
78
African American English
The origin of AAE 1. Pidgin/creole 2. Second
language of a particular variety of English
spoken in the South.
79
The African Substratum Hypothesis
Since the first slaves spoke a variety of
African languages and since they had only little
contact with their white masters, they used a
simplified version of English with elements of
their native language as a lingua france. AAE
developed from this early pidgin/creole language.
80
African American English
Until the beginning of the 20th century, 90 of
all African American lived in the South, mainly
in rural areas.
81
African American English
Today, more than 60 of all African Americans
live in the non-South, mainly in urban centers.
82
LSA resolution
The variety known as "Ebonics," "African
American Vernacular English" (AAVE), and
"Vernacular Black English" and by other names is
systematic and rule-governed like all natural
speech varieties. In fact, all human linguistic
systems--spoken, signed, and written -- are
fundamentally regular. Characterizations of
Ebonics as "slang," "mutant," "lazy,"
"defective," "ungrammatical," or "broken English"
are incorrect and demeaning.
83
LSA resolution
As affirmed in the LSA Statement of Language
Rights (June l996), there are individual and
group benefits to maintaining vernacular speech
varieties and there are scientific and human
advantages to linguistic diversity. For those
living in the United States there are also
benefits in acquiring Standard English and
resources should be made available to all who
aspire the mastery of Standard English. The
Oakland School Board's commitment to helping
students master Standard English is commendable.
84
Agreement - AAE
(1) He need to get a book from the shelf. She
want us to pass the papers to the front.
85
Genitive - AAE
(1) The dog tail was wagging. The man hat was
old.
86
Copula deletion - AAE
(1) That my Ø bike. The coffee Ø cold. He Ø all
right.
87
Habitual be - AAE
(1) Do they be playing all day? Yeah, the boys
do be messin around a lot. I see her when I be
on my way to school. The coffee be cold.
(2) a. The coffee cold. b. The coffee be cold.
(3) The coffee be cold right now.
88
Perfective done - AAE
(1) She done did it. They done used all the good
ones. They done go.
89
Negative inversion - AAE
(1) Cant nobody beatem. (2) Dont nobody say
nothin to dem peoples! (3) Wasnt nobody in
there but em an him. (4) Aint no white cop
gonna put his hands on me.
90
Double negation - AAE
(2) I didnt have no lunch. He dont never go
nowhere.
91
PIDGIN/CREOLE GENESIS THEORIES

Lexical items are easy to trace one main
lexifier language, with small sets of words from
one or more other languages.
Saramaccan 50 English LL 35
Portuguese 15 Kikongo/Ewe/Fon/Twi Chinook
Jargon Lower Chinook language
LLNootkaSalishan languagesFrenchEnglish
92
PIDGIN/CREOLE GENESIS THEORIES

All the controversy centers on the route(s)
through which the languages' grammars emerged.
93
PIDGIN/CREOLE GENESIS THEORIES

MONOGENESIS HYPOTHESIS In its strong form, this
hypothesis states that all pidgins and Creoles
are descen-dants of the original lingua franca of
the Mediterranean, albeit with relexification -
lexical replacement - for all pidgins and Creoles
that do not have Italian lexicon, i.e. almost all
known modern pidgins and Creoles.
94
PIDGIN/CREOLE GENESIS THEORIES

ABRUPT CREATION a pidgin arising in a new
multilingual contact situation for use in limited
domains a creole arising in a new multilingual
contact situation for use in all domains.
95
PIDGIN/CREOLE GENESIS THEORIES

Bickerton's Language Bioprogram Hypothesis
plantation Creoles adults use a
"macaronic" prepidgin their children, growing
up with only the unstable prepidgin as input for
their langua-ge-learning task, construct a
grammar de-rived from grammatical structures that
are literally genetically programmed in every
newborn human infant's brain.
96
PIDGIN/CREOLE GENESIS THEORIES

Lefebvre's Relexification Hypothesis 'creoles
are created by adults who develop a new lexicon
by combining the phonetic shapes of one language
with the semantic and syntactic information of
another lang. 'the central process in
creolization' compare syntactic structures of
Haitian Creole, a French-lexicon Caribbean
creole, with syntactic structures of Fon, that
was spoken by a significant proportion of the
slaves during the Creole's formative period.
97
PIDGIN/CREOLE GENESIS THEORIES

Pidgin genesis and Creole genesis are akin to L2
acquisition and thus to processes of
shift-induced interference
The idea is that people's 'right' guesses about
what the others will understand become part of
the emerging contact language. The structures
they settle on will be those best understood by
all the other people primarily unmarked
structures, but also marked structures that are
common in most or all of the languages in
contact.
The resulting pidgin or creole grammar,is a
crosslanguage compromise among the languages of
the pidgin/creole creators.
98
PIDGIN/CREOLE GENESIS THEORIES

Chaudenson's gradual creole-genesis
hypothesis slaves worked lived with French
speakers and therefore learned French
imperfectly. newly arrived slaves no longer had
much contact with their French-speaking masters
they therefore learned French from the first
group of slaves. Subsequent waves of slaves
learned increasingly divergent varieties of
French, until at last the general language of the
slaves was a creole
99
How does a pidgin language develop grammatical
expressions? What drives the process of
creolisation?
100
The Bioprogram Hypothesis
The human species comes equipped with the
capacity to reconstitute language itself - should
the normal generation-to-generation transmission
of input data be inserted or distorted by
extralinguistic forces. (Muysken Bickerton
1988)
101
Grammaticalization
Source Target AUX go (motion) gonna will
(intention) will have (possession) have
102
Grammaticalization
Source Target P during (verb) during in
front of (PP) in front of a-gone (PRE-verb) ago
103
Grammaticalization
Source Target CONJ by cause (PP) because DEM
while SUB while given given
104
Grammaticalization
Source Target PRO/ART some body (NP) somebody
one (numeral) the one one (numeral) a
105
Grammaticalization
Source Target Bound NOUN -ly NOUN -hood di
d -ed
106
Grammaticalization
Grammaticalization is cross-linguistically so
pervasive that some linguists suggested that all
grammatical expressions are eventually derived
from a lexical source.
107
Grammaticalization
Grammaticalization is of central signifiance for
the theory of language
Challenges rigid division between lexicon and
grammar.
Challenges the assumption that grammatical
categories have clear-cut boundaries.
Suggests that grammar is dynamic and emergent.
108
pidcreo 00
109
pidcreo 00
110
Bibliography

• 1. Aitchinson, Jean. Language Change Progress
  or Decay?. UK Cambridge University Press, 2001.
• 2. Romaine, Suzanne. Pidgin Creole Languages.
  NY Longman , INC., 1988.
• 3. Singh, Ishtla. Pidgins and Creoles An
  Introduction. NY Oxford University Press Inc.,
  2000.
• 4. En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Pidgin
• 5. www.ethnologue.com
• 6. www.msu.edu/colem104/paper1.htm