Transcript Slide 1

Wolfson on Pidgins and
Creoles
Inadequacies of definition
• with the best will in the world, scholars have not
been able to arrive at a satisfactory linguistic
definition of pidgin and creole languages in the
sense that it truly serves to distinguish them
from other languages. Thus, although pidgins
and creoles share certain linguistic features which make them typologically different from
most other languages, these same features are
found to exist in languages which do not have
the linguistic or historical background common
to pidgin and creole languages.
Attempt at definition part one
• Because creoles are, by definition, derived from
pidgins, we begin with a description of the
characteristics of pidgin languages and of the
theories which explain their origins and
development.
• pidgins are no one's native language. They arise
in situations of contact between speakers of
mutually unintelligible languages and develop
into relatively stable linguistic systems with their
own syntax, lexicon (vocabulary), and
phonology.
Definition part 2
• The fact that a pidgin has, by definition no native
speakers has two important implications. On the
one hand, it follows that in order for a language
to qualify as a pidgin it must be sufficiently
different
• On the other hand, because pidgin languages
are native to no one, it follows that all of their
speakers are bilinguals.
• How is the classification as “bilingual” relevant or
problematic?
Argument for UG
• Pidgins are contact languages which develop between
people who need to interact and who have no common
language…If, however, pidgin speakers intermarry and
form a community where the pidgin becomes the
common language, the children of these speakers
acquire the language in the way all children acquire first
languages, and, because the language must now
function as the main or only means of communication, it
develops a much more extensive vocabulary and
syntactic system. Once a pidgin gains native
speakers, it becomes classified as a creole
language.
Language evolves?
• If the interlingual contact is prolonged and
institutionalized, (as in of slavery, the presence
of foreign military troops, or the marriage of
Tarzan and Jane) then the pidgin becomes fixed,
and newcomers to that inter-lingual scene must
learn it as they would learn Esperanto. … and so
begins the process of evolution which may
someday result... in a creole if speakers begin
using it as a native language.
• Who knows what Esperanto is?
Politics plays a role
• Pidgins and creoles developed by subordinated
groups, Wolfson tells us “it has been postulated
(cf. Whinnom (1971) that: "since it would appear
to be true that no pidgin has ever consolidated
itself in other than a multilingual situation (New
Guinea Pidgin, Hawaiian Pidgin, the Caribbean
Creoles, Sango, Chinook, etc., etc.) it may well
be that no simple bilingual situation ever gives
rise to a pidgin" (Whinnom 1971:104).
There are 4 theories to the origin of
these (inter) languages (wc?)
• 1. The baby-talk or foreigner-talk theory
• 2. The independent Parallel Development
Theory or the theory of polygenesis
• 3. Pidgin languages arose from the nautical
jargon used by sailors during the period of
extensive exploration which began in the
fifteenth century.
• 4. the theory of monogenesis. The most
extreme or strong version of this theory holds
that all pidgins had a single common origin
(Sabir)
The baby-talk or foreigner-talk
theory
• the masters, in accommodating their speech to make it
intelligible their workers, used a much reduced
morphological and syntactic system which then served
as the model for these language learners. …, there is
evidence to suggest that this process could only have
been one ingredient in their development. …, one
important piece of counterevidence is that although
pidgin languages are characterized by morphological
reduction, they also frequently contain some features
which are morphologically more complicated than the
source language
The independent Parallel Development
Theory: the theory of polygenesis
• Hall (1962) holds that since pidgins arose in separate
situations, each must be considered to have developed
independently. Thus,, the pidgin languages "come from"
French or English or whatever European language
served as the source for the lexicon, and they should be
considered varieties of these languages. The difficulty
with this theory is that it cannot account for the wellknown fact that European-based pidgin languages are
very similar to one another in spite of the fact that some
are spoken along the shores and islands of the Atlantic
Ocean and others in the Pacific Ocean area, with little
likelihood of contact between speakers in the two fardistant regions.
3. Pidgin languages arose from the
nautical jargon.
• The evidence for this theory is the
existence of nautical items in pidgins and
creoles which derive their lexicons
principally from European languages, but
since only a few such elements exist, the
theory cannot be considered adequate to
explain the many structural similarities
among European-based creole and pidgin
languages.
4. the theory of monogenesis
• the asimilarity among the pidgin and creole
languages of both the Atlantic and the Pacific
has given rise to a related, but far more
comprehensive, theory concerning the origin of
this category of languages. The most extreme or
strong version of this theory holds that all pidgins
had a single common origin in Sabir, a
Mediterranean trade language which flourished
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
languages and language learning in contact
situations have in common much that is
universal
• Perhaps it would be better to look for a "common" origin
in another sense; the possibility of universal patterns of
behavior appropriate to contact situations pidgins and
creoles because, fundamentally, languages are
alike…humans are programmed to acquire Language
rather than any particular language. It is not being
suggested that one is consciously aware of how one
adjusts one’s language behavior. But that one does
adjust and that people of different linguistic backgrounds
adjust their language behavior in similar ways, suggests
that the behavior is rule-governed and may be the result
of linguistic universals. (Todd 1974:42)
Again UG raises it’s head
• Bickerton (1981) in his famous book, Roots of
Language. argues that the origin of creoles and
the way children acquire their first language are
basically similar and that both are similar to the
origin of language. The origin of creole
languages and their striking similarities to one
another are explained by postulating a universal
cognitive map, much like that proposed by
Chomsky (1968). Bickerton's theory, generally
known as the bioprogram hypothesis, makes
use of an analysis of second language
Bickerton's theory:interesting and clearly
described, albeit impossible to prove
• The child does not, initially, "learn language." As he develops, the
genetic program for language which is his hominid inheritance
unrolls exactly as does the genetic program that determines his
increase in size, muscular control, etc. "Learning" consists of
adapting this program, revising it, adjusting it to fit the realities of the
cultural language he encounters. Without such a program, the
simplest of cultural languages would be unlearnable. But the
learning process is not without its tensions-the child tends to hang
on to his innate grammar for as long as possible-so that the
"learning trajectory" of any human child will show traces of the
bioprogram, and bioprogram rules and structures may make their
way into adult speech whenever the model of the cultural language
is weakened.
• This, then, in outline is the unified theory of language acquisition,
creole language origins, and general language origins for which the
present volume has amassed numerous and diverse types of
evidence. (Bickerton 1981:297)
Again with the politics – what we
know
• “there is no doubt that they have much in common from
the social point of view. With few exceptions, these
languages are spoken by people at the very bottom of
the socioeconomic structure. Many pidgin and creole
speakers lack formal education. Where one of these
languages exists side by side with the standard
language from which its vocabulary is derived, it will
nearly always be the subordinate language. In general,
pidgin and creole languages are seen, by their own
speakers as well as by others, as corruptions of the
infinitely more prestigious standard languages.” (why?)
• What exceptions can you think of?
Some questions
Painful as it may be, we must always
recognize that the low esteem accorded
these languages is symbolic of
sociocultural attitudes toward their
speakers.
• How or where have you experienced creoles or pidgins?
• How do you feel about them?
• How does this knowledge apply to sla and your work in
the classroom?
• Change society or change the language learner?
More questions
• Would Spanglish, Chinglish be pidgins,
creoles or other?
• Are there words for other interlanguages
(is that the right word – I’m serious)
German? French? etc.