CREOLISATION

The emergence of a creole language even though the children of pidgin-speakers have only been exposed to pidgin forms. Creoles are much more sophisticated than pidgins and have many of the features of a fully-fledged language (structure-dependency, complex sentences, articles, consistent word order). The question therefore arises of how the child acquires the creole forms.

One conclusion might be that infants are more sensitive than adults to the standard language outside the family. However, creoles also differ significantly and systematically from both the ambient language and the first language of the pidgin-speaking parents. Furthermore, similarities have been demonstrated between creoles which have developed independently in different parts of the world. It has therefore been suggested that creolisation affords important evidence that infants possess an innate Universal Grammar, in the form of a language bioprogram. The hypothesis is that, even when normal linguistic input is not available, the bioprogram ensures that infants shape what they hear to fit certain patterns which characterise all languages. This is sometimes referred to as the nativisation hypothesis.

The bioprogram theory has been challenged in terms of both the evidence and the interpretation put upon it. However, support comes from studies of deaf infants who have not been taught sign language, but have nevertheless developed their own gestural language, homesign. Homesign bears interesting resemblances to the language of hearing children, both in its semantic content and in the ages at which utterances of different lengths emerge.

 See also: Critical period, Nativisation hypothesis, Nativism, Sign language, Universal Grammar

 Further reading: Bickerton (1990)

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مواضيع ذات صلة

Problems with the dictionary view

The dictionary view

Dictionaries versus encyclopaedias

The encyclopaedic view of meaning

Embodiment and conceptual structure summary

Schematic systems

Semantic structure

Conceptual structure

Image schemas and abstract thought

Properties of image schemas

What is an image schema?

Image schemas