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What is Pidgin?
A language developed by speakers of distinct languages who come in contact with one another and share no common language. Venues: trade, plantation Examples: Sabir (Mediterranean); Tok Pisin (Papua New Guinea); Hawaiian Pidgin English; various Pidgin languages of Pacific Northwest, involving native American language, English / Russian
EXAMPLES OF PIDGIN
Early Hawai'i Pidgin English spoken in Honolulu in the late 19th century:
What for Miss Willis laugh all time? Before Fraulein cry all time
"Why does Miss Willis often laugh? Fraulein used to always cry."
"Sapos yu kaikai planti pinat, bai yu kamap strong olsem phantom." "Fantom, yu pren tru bilong mi. Inap yu ken helpim mi nau? "Fantom, em i go we?"
'If you eat plenty of peanuts, you will come up strong like the phantom. Phantom, you are a true friend of mine. Are you able to help me now? Where did he go?'
WHAT IS PIDGINIZATION?
Pidginization "The development into a pidgin." (C: 428) As a complex process of sociolinguistic change, it involves reduction of linguistic resources and restriction of use (Hymes).
As a process of acquisition under restricted conditions, it involves the learning of a second language by speakers of different language of the dominant group (Bickerton). (R: 2) Well known example of Pidginization process: Alberto is a 33-year-old Costa Rican who had lived in Massachusetts for four months when his language progress first began to be investigated. Along with five other Spanish-speaking immigrants, (two five-year-old children, two adolescents and one other adult), his speech was monitored over a period of 10 months, by a variety of means, including free expression in natural settings to pencil and paper tests in the classroom. While the other five all made progress, Albert quickly pidginized.
Thus, for negation, Alberto only used the two earliest stages 'no' + V - I no understand good 'don't' + V - don't know For interrogatives, Alberto occasionally would produce full verb movement - 'What are doing these people?
This would explain why some second language learners end up using a simplified and restricted variety of the L2: "Schumann claims that Alberto's speech is pidginization as a result of his social and psychological distance from English speakers."(Schumann. [1976]. Second language acquisition: The pidginization hypothesis. Language Learning, 26, 391-408).
The following features are usual in the grammar of pidgin languages. (Sebba, 1997; 39).
No definite or indefinite article, No copula to be, Tense, aspect, modality, and negation market externally to the verb often by a content word like an adverb, No complex sentence, No passive forms, Very few or no inflections for number, case, tense, etc., and Analytic constructions used to mark possessive, e.g. x of y rather than ys x.
Schumann (1987:33) and Ellis (2002: 252-253) 252discuss 3 major functions of this language:
The communicative functions, which concerns the transmission of purely referential, denotative information. The integrative function, which involves the use of language to mark the speaker as a member of particular social-group The expressive function, which consists of the use of language to display linguistic virtuosity (e.g. in literary uses).
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