Morphological simplicity in Pidgins and Creoles

Siegel, Jeff

doi:10.1075/jpcl.19.1.06sie

Cited by 52 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Thus, at least based on our English data, language contact appears to result very systematically in a lower degree of complexity due to the strategies preferred by adults in second language acquisition (cf. also Siegel 2004). At the same time, L2 varieties have been found to exhibit a strikingly different complexity profile from English-based pidgins and creoles.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

World Englishes between simplification and complexification

Kortmann¹,

Szmrecsanyi²

2009

World Englishes – Problems, Properties and Prospects

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This paper offers a broad empirical morphosyntactic study contributing to three debates in linguistics, one of long standing (the so-called equi-complexity axiom), the other two rather more recent, namely McWhorter's claim (2001aMcWhorter's claim ( ,b, 2007 that (pidgins and) creoles have the simplest grammars, and Trudgill's claim (2009) that high-contact varieties of English are characterized by structural simplification processes while low-contact varieties are the result of complexification processes. We will present the results of comparative analyses covering three notionally different morphosyntactic complexity metrics applied to two different data types for about 50 largely non-standard varieties of English (low-contact L1s, high-contact L1s, L2s, pidgins and creoles). Ultimately, we believe to be in a firm position to reject the axiom that the morphosyntax of all languages (and varieties of a language) is equally complex and to support both the claims by McWhorter and Trudgill.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

World Englishes between simplification and complexification

Kortmann¹,

Szmrecsanyi²

2009

World Englishes – Problems, Properties and Prospects

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“…Elimination of variation via analogical levelling -a form of regularization -is a key process in language change (see e.g. Hock, 2003), and creolization can also be characterised as the construction of a new language via levelling and regularization of a pool of linguistic variants arising from radical language contact (Siegel, 2004). One possible implication of the differences in adult and child treatment of unpredictable variation, as highlighted by Hudson Kam & Newport (2005), is that child learners may be primarily responsible for the elimination of variability during language change and creolization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eliminating unpredictable variation through iterated learning

2010

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Human languages may be shaped not only by the (individual psychological) processes of language acquisition, but also by population-level processes arising from repeated language learning and use. One prevalent feature of natural languages is that they avoid unpredictable variation. The current work explores whether linguistic predictability might result from a process of iterated learning in simple diffusion chains of adults. An iterated artificial language learning methodology was used, in which participants were organized into diffusion chains: the first individual in each chain was exposed to an artificial language which exhibited unpredictability in plural marking, and subsequent learners were exposed to the language produced by the previous learner in their chain. Diffusion chains, but not isolate learners, were found to cumulatively increase predictability of plural marking by lexicalising the choice of plural marker. This suggests that such gradual, cumulative population-level processes offer a possible explanation for regularity in language.

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“…Though it must be noted that its verbs lose their transitive marking in passive clauses. See also Faraclas 2003, Mühlhäusler 1985a, Meyerhoff 1996, Siegel 2004, and Sankoff 1993 for a discussion of the transitive marker in Pacific pidgins and creoles.…”

Section: The Results Of Typological Congruence Between Gurindji and Kmentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of asymmetrical serial verb constructions in an Australian mixed language

Meakins

2010

Linguistic Typology

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Morphological simplicity in Pidgins and Creoles

Cited by 52 publications

References 21 publications

World Englishes between simplification and complexification

World Englishes between simplification and complexification

Eliminating unpredictable variation through iterated learning

The development of asymmetrical serial verb constructions in an Australian mixed language

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