Chapter 1 Introduction to the study of pidgins and creoles
Chapter 2 Definitions and characteristics of pidgins and creoles
Chapter 3 The origin of pidgins
Chapter 4 The life cycle of pidgins
Chapter 5 The life cycle of creoles: decreolization and recreolization
Chapter 6 Language acquisition and the study of pidgins and creoles
Chapter 7 Language universals and pidgins and creoles
Chapter 8 Conclusion
Appendix I A survey of the pidgins and creoles of the world
References
Index
Description
Pidgin and creole languages are of major importance to linguists. This book
defines and describes the linguistic features of these languages
and considers the dynamic developments that bring them into being and
lead to changes in their structure. Professor Suzanne Romaine argues that
pidgins have a recognizable structure of their own, independent of the languages
involved in the original contact; and moreover, that the stability of
this structure varies, depending on the extent of its internal development
and the functional expansion that the pidgin has undergone at a particular point
in its life cycle. Within this context, she discusses the role of creative innovation,
transmission, and borrowing in creole formation.
Significantly, the book places the study of these languages within the context of
current issues of concern to linguistic theory: language acquisition, and universals
and change. It argues for a developmentally-based model of language which
treats all acquisition phenomena within a single framework. The task
of synthesizing a model of language which is adequate for progress in the
study of pidgins and creoles is not lessened by treating these languages
as special cases. Nor is it aided by trying to isolate a social context of
creolization distinct from the more general forces which operate on all
languages.
