James Chandler | Pidgins and morphology

• Autor: James Chandler (“idojc”)
• Tema: Pidgins and morphology
• Data: 2002-09-16 18:03
• Mesaje: 75 (presedente, seguente)

From Suzanne Romaine, Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, p. 25:

2.2 Some linguistic features of pidgins

Among those who stress social explanations for the reduced and
simplified nature of pidgins is Hudson (1980:63), who comments in
particular on their characteristic lack of inflectional morphology.
He suggests that inflectional morphology may in some sense be an unnatural
mechanism for expressing semantic and syntactic distinctions. He notes too
that it is strange that inflectional morphology is so widespread among
natural languages, given that it benefits nobody, and makes a language more
difficult to learn.  It is often the finer details of language such as
variable pronunciations of inflectional suffixes (eg. the plural marker, as
in house/houses and the past tense, as in pack/packed) which are socially
diagnostic of the speaker's social class, sex, style etc.  Hudson speculates
that if a language variety is a pidgin, which no one uses as a means of
group identification, there is no pressure to maintain inefficient aspects
of pronunciation and grammar.  Presumably there are also difficulties in
borrowing and integrating inflectional morphology in the early stages of a
pidgin's development.

Kordiale, James Chandler
idojc@...
http://www.geocities.com/idojc - IALs index
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"I come from a country which does not yet exist." - J. Craveirinha

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