ling unit5

condition 1 when pidgins arise

speakers of 2+ languages need to communicate and have no shared language

condition 2 when pidgins arise

there’s an imbalance in the power relations of the language groups + one particular group dominates the other groups

new pidgin languages _______

• have vocabulary mostly from superstrate language

• very little grammar

• are restricted in how they’re used

• aren’t developed for social interaction

life cycle of pidgins and creoles

early pidgins, stabilized pidgin, expanded pidgin, creole

early pidgins

• very basic form of communication

• much variation in the way people speak the new pidgin

• very little/no grammar

• very variable word order

• very restricted

development of early pidgins

• elimination of functional words

• simplification of superstrate morphology

• reduction of superstrate vocabulary size

• reanalysis of words

• adjusting pronunciation of borrowed words

• word order

stabilized pidgins

• word order stabilization

• vocabulary growth

creolization

• when a pidgin becomes a L1

• vocabulary size increases significantly

• new grammatical words develop

• faster speech causes sound changes

significance of creolization

• creates grammatical elements

• recreates grammar types in older languages

relexification

• words from one language gradually replace words in another language without affecting grammar in that language

• Language 2 comes to be spokemon mostly with words from Language 1

Universal grammar

• Noam Chornsky: all humans are born with part of their brain dedicated to understanding language

• we’re genetically programmed to develop languages in same way

De-creolization characteristics

• situation: a a creole and its superstrate language are spoken by members of a single population

• over time, creole + superstrate speakers come into contact more than in the past

• creole words and grammar gradually get replaced with words and grammar from the standard form of the superstrate language