The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies

Featuring an international contributor list, this long-awaited and broad-ranging collection examines the key issues, topics and research in pidgin and creole studies.

• A comprehensive reference work exploring the treatment of core aspects of pidgins/creoles, focusing on the questions that animate creole studies
• Brings together newly-commissioned entries by an international contributor team
• Accessibly structured into four sections covering: the character of pidgins and creoles; the relation of pidgins/creoles to other language phenomena and other languages; issues in pidgin/creole genesis; and the role of pidgins/creoles in society
• Provides a valuable resource for students, scholars and researchers working across a number linguistic disciplines, including sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, and the anthropology of language

Notes on Contributors vii

List of Abbreviations xiv

1 Introduction 1
Silvia Kouwenberg and John Victor Singler

Part I Properties of Pidgins and Creoles 17

2 Atlantic Creole Syntax 19
Donald Winford

3 Forging Pacific Pidgin and Creole Syntax: Substrate, Discourse, and Inherent Variability 48
Miriam Meyerhoff

4 Pidgin and Creole Morphology 74
Terry Crowley

5 Creole Phonology 98
Norval S. H. Smith

6 Pidgins versus Creoles and Pidgincreoles 130
Peter Bakker

7 Non-Indo-European Pidgins and Creoles 158
Kees Versteegh

Part II Perspectives on Pidgin/creole Genesis 187

8 Pidgins/Creoles, and Second Language Acquisition 189
Jeff Siegel

9 Creole Genesis: The Impact of the Language Bioprogram Hypothesis 219
Tonjes Veenstra

10 Pidgins/Creoles and Historical Linguistics 242
Sarah G. Thomason

11 Pidgins/Creoles and Contact Languages: An Overview 263
Rajend Mesthrie

12 Creole Studies and Multilingualism 287
Pieter Muysken

13 A Demographic Perspective on Creole Formation 309
Jacques Arends

14 The Sociohistorical Context of Creole Genesis 332
John Victor Singler

15 The Cultural in Pidgin Genesis 359
Christine Jourdan

Part III Pidgins/Creoles and Linguistic Explanation 383

16 Grammaticalization in Pidgins and Creoles 385
Adrienne Bruyn

17 Creoles, Markedness, and Default Settings: An Appraisal 411
Alain Kihm

18 Semantic Evidence in Pidgin and Creole Genesis 440
George Huttar

19 Pidgins, Creoles, and Variation 461
Peter L. Patrick

Part IV Pidgins/Creoles and Kindred Languages 489

20 The Case of Signed Languages in the Context of Pidgin and Creole Studies 491
Judy Kegl

21 Pidgins/Creoles and African American English 512
Arthur K. Spears

22 Spanish-Based Creoles in the Caribbean 543
John M. Lipski

Part V Pidgins/Creoles in Society 565

23 Pidgins/Creoles and Discourse 567
Geneviève Escure

24 Pidgins/Creoles and Education 593
Dennis Craig

25 Language Planning in Pidgins and Creoles 615
Hubert Devonish

26 Literary Representations of Creole Languages: Cross-Linguistic Perspectives from the Caribbean 637
Hélène Buzelin and Lise Winer

Author Index 666

Language Index 677

Subject Index 682

Silvia Kouwenberg is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy at the University of the West Indies (Mona, Jamaica). Her publications include A Grammar of Berbice Dutch (1994), Papiamentu (with Eric Murray, 1994), and Twice as Meaningful: Reduplication in Pidgins, Creoles and Other Contact Languages (edited, 2003).

John Victor Singler is Professor of Linguistics at New York University. His publications include An Introduction to Liberian English (1981) and Pidgin and Creole Tense-Mood-Aspect Systems (edited, 1990).

The comparatively recent origins of pidgins and creoles provide them with a special place in linguistic theory. Debates about the origin and character of these languages have informed broader discussions within grammatical theory, historical linguistics, and sociolinguistics. The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies tackles these cross-linguistic questions that animate pidgin and creole studies.

Bringing together newly commissioned material by an international contributor list, this comprehensive and broad-ranging collection explores the core aspects of pidgins/creoles, from phonology to language acquisition, and from language variation to education. The book is structured into five sections covering: the properties of pidgins and creoles; issues in pidgin/creole genesis; pidgins/creoles and linguistic explanation; the relation of pidgins/creoles to kindred languages; and their role in society. The result is a stimulating one-volume reference work covering the key issues, topics, and research in this field.

"This handbook provides a timely overview of a constantly changing and growing field and serves as a handy reference for anyone working on pidgins and creoles or related issues."
–James Walker, York University

"A most informative handbook on pidgin and creole languages. Superbly edited, and written by the preeminent scholars in the field."
–Armin Schwegler, University of California, Irvine